Wednesday September 8, 2021
Conversations with God
The Rev. Robert E. Stevens, Jr.
Got Prayer?
My professor of Mission and Ministry in seminary was and remains one of my favorite people. This is due to his ability to communicate the Gospel in a way that allowed for me to be the discoverer instead of simply the recipient of knowledge. One day in class he asked how many of us were confirmed in the Episcopal Church. This is a silly question because all people who are seeking ordination need to be confirmed. We all dutifully raised our hands. Then, he asked how many of us learned the colors of the church year during our confirmation classes. Once again all of us raised our hands. He then asked how many of us learned how to pray during our confirmation class. He had that smile that he would have when he knew he was on to something. Only two hands out of the 25 people were raised. He then pondered aloud, “Thank God we are learning the important things!” His sarcasm was not lost on us and we proceeded to discuss, wonder and dream about a church that did not miss the point or as the cliché goes, “major in the minors.” We dreamed about a community of faith that actually taught us how to pray.
Have you ever learned how to pray? Has the church or a family member or friend ever taken the time to wonder about this most holy of conversations with you? If not, you are not alone. Prayer is often assumed. It is so personal that we tend to leave it up to the individual. When we as the church do this we confuse the word personal and private. Yes, our prayer life is personal, but it need not be private. We need each other for this journey of faith and sharing with one another how we communicate with God is one of our primary conversations as a church.
So how do we pray? What do we say, how do we say it? Do you listen to God? How do you listen to God? These are all questions that lead us deeper into our faith, deeper into our lives. Prayer is very simple in that it is our conversation with God and yet it is very complex because no two humans are alike and our personalities and needs are different. One question that reminds me of my priorities is, “Is there room for God in my life?” Prayer like any conversation takes time, energy and attention. So, if you do not have 10 seconds to yourself in the course of your day then my guess is that prayer is not something that is “just happening.” A very practical and effective way to begin a practice of prayer is to make room for 5 minutes of quiet and simply listen. Listen to your heart beat. Listen to the background noise. Listen to your life. This is at the heart of prayer. It is the practice that allows us to stop and remember that great phrase from Psalm 46. “Be still and know that I am God.”
Another question that helps me is, “Is prayer a requirement or a gift?” If I am praying only because I am suppose to, then it will be the first thing to fall off my “to do list.” If I remember that prayer is a gift that leads me to a joyful life then it will be something that I move agendas and deadlines to make room for in my life. I invite you to ponder a life where your relationship with God is a gift that makes life fuller instead of a requirement that adds yet another task to check off.
Why pray? It is a great question. I once heard a little boy ask he parents what he was made of. The father began with a scientific explanation which although accurate was less than helpful to the pre-school child. Then, the mother stepped in a said, “You are made of God-stuff.” To which the little boy’s eyes widened and he said, “Cool.” Why pray? Because we not only need to be in contact with who made us, but also with what we are made of. We spend so much energy trying to make meaning by living “out there” in the world around us. Prayer reminds us that all the meaning we could ever handle was given to us in our creation by God. Why pray? Because life is so much richer and deeper and freer when we know not only who we are but also whose we are.
The gift of prayer whether it is in church, in solitude, in the ocean or on a mountaintop reminds me what the reading from Timothy last week so eloquently states… “[We] are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.”