Free
Preview
Another Book About Prayer?
King Solomon tried to warn me:
“…my son, beware. The writing of
many books is endless, and
excessive devotion to books is
wearying to the body.”1 I now
know the depth of his wisdom.
When I started this book, I only
meant to jot down a few modest
insights that came from some
painful and challenging
circumstances. But what began as
a 20-page pamphlet mushroomed
into a three-year process of
study and writing that still
cries out for “more” and
“better.”
Good King Solomon knew something
else about writing books. He
said that no book has much value
unless, “The Preacher sought to
find delightful words and to
write words of truth correctly.
The words of wise men are like
goads and masters of these
collections are like well driven
nails...”
Many centuries later, George
MacDonald amplified Solomon’s
wisdom by asking: “How am I to
know that a thing is true? By
doing what you know to be true
and calling nothing true until
you see it to be true; by
shutting your mouth until the
truth opens it. Are you meant to
be silent? Then woe is you if
you speak.”
So if I understand both men, if
the truth bids my silence but I
speak, I do no service to it or
to myself. But if truth bids me
speak and I withhold or demure
because of fear, I do no service
at all. My goal is to use
well-chosen words to reveal my
integrity, to share God’s wisdom
and to generate Glory for Him.
I love what Ann Lamott says
about writing books: “[I] try to
write the books I would love to
come upon, that are honest,
concerned with real lives, human
hearts, spiritual
transformation, families,
secrets, wonder, craziness-and
that can make me laugh. When I
am reading a book like this, I
feel rich and profoundly
relieved to be in the presence
of someone who will share the
truth with me, and throw the
lights on a little, and I try to
write these kinds of books.”
The Ultimate Credential
In 1965 as a part of The
Salvation Army’s Centennial
celebration, the Church of
England honored General William
Booth, the Army’s founder, by
placing a bust of him in
Westminster Abbey. On that
occasion, a deeply humbled
General Frederick Coutts
wondered by what “right” Booth
should be honored in the great
cathedral of the Church of
England. He answered his own
question with a hauntingly
simple thought: “By no right,
but by the grace of God.”
If you wonder by what right I
publish a book about prayer,
it’s the same answer: by the
grace of God. I understand very
well that anything good or
useful coming from this work, or
me, is the result of both human
and divine grace.
In fact, when it comes to
praying, there are many who
leave me in the dust. By
comparison to some who read
these words, I’m a mere novice.
But I have a valuable message to
share with those individuals who
resonate with the title of this
book, Praying When Prayer
Doesn’t Work. Dr. Martin Marty
uses the word “wintery” to
describe our lives when God
seems distant. At such times,
well-meaning people of faith
look for something to warm their
spirits and more often than not,
that’s prayer. The message of
this book that first warmed my
heart on a cold December morning
in 2006 is that there’s much
more to praying than tapping
into its immediate utility.
For me, praying is a
work-in-progress, because that’s
exactly what I am to God. What I
share here started long before I
settled down to record it. While
trying for years to crack the
secret prayer code, I regularly
gave up because the results were
far less than the promises. Poet
William Cowper describes the
deadly habit of misjudging God’s
love when we assume that He
shows it by answering prayer
requests: “Judge not the Lord by
feeble sense, but trust Him for
His grace.” It was learning to
trust completely in grace, not
feelings or prayer results, that
changed my life and restored my
prayer integrity. At a time when
I struggled greatly with
disappointment about all things
in my life, including God, His
Holy Spirit graced mine with a
simple truth that ended my
turmoil, unlocked my chains and
set me free.
Prayer Is Evergreen,
Enigmatic and Ethereal
As mentioned earlier, the
positive side of praying is that
so many do it daily. The
underside of that amazing fact
is to most that’s a couple of
meal prayers a day and saying
good-night to God. Maybe the
disconnect between the desire
and practice of prayer is a
misunderstanding about what it
is.
Here are three quick
observations that may help us
understand why we don't
understand prayer:
One, prayer is an evergreen
subject. That means it never
stops growing. In one way,
that’s good news, but it
also makes understanding it
problematic.
Two, prayer is enigmatic.
That means its mysterious
nature makes it hard to
contain in any man -made
doctrine or system.
Three, prayer is about God,
not us. So like Him, it's
ethereal, ineffable and
undefinable by nature making
it impossible to explain.
The great early Church thinker
Tertullian tied to define such
undefinable mysteries of faith
by saying all doctrine is simply
man’s attempt to fence a
mystery. Ethereal and eternal
subjects, like prayer, have no
terminus or adequate
explanation. All we can hope to
do is experientially define it,
seek to understand little bits
about it and share our insights
with others.
Therefore, prayer has as many
connotations and systems as
practitioners and everyone has
an opinion about what it is and
how it ought to work. That’s
where dogma comes in.
Unfortunately, when finite minds
try to explain, simplify,
categorize or codify infinite
subjects, their conclusions
often create more turmoil than
truth. Some amount of confusion
or mystery is healthy as long as
it’s redeemed by an ongoing
search for the light, but
unfortunately, ignorance, apathy
and blind acceptance of the
company line results in the
worship of the dogma, not the
Divine.
Well-meaning explanations about
how prayer is supposed to work,
even when it doesn’t, makes
praying either a dry duty or a
frustrating scheme, often
causing more harm than good to
the sincere seeker. I believe
that far too many today are
stuck on the muddy roads of
prayer dogma. |