In the Midst of A Conversation

Yesterday I preached on the Gospel of Luke and prayer. I have to admit that some things are still on my mind that I should pray about.

The Lord's Prayer is a wonderful prayer that is at the heart of Christian worship all over the world. It’s a beautiful prayer that is powerful and has meant so much to so many in their spiritual development. Prayer is essential to the life of a Christian. I don’t see how anyone can make it as a Christian without a deep and rich prayer life. Sometimes we will pray out of a sense of deep need. Other times we will be so filled with joy we will be driven to our knees in thanksgiving. And then there will be times when we will be ashamed of some action or some thought, and we will pray, “God have mercy on me.” But to be a Christian is to pray.

Prayer should be the most important conversation you'll ever have. It's not a monologue. Many people think about it as our time to talk to God, telling God how we feel, what we want, confessing our sins, seeking God's forgiveness, petitioning in behalf of others, reaffirming our praise and devotion. But prayer should be more than a monologue.

I have always had a problem with regular, scheduled prayer periods--taking a formal time out of every day, perhaps at the beginning of the day, to pray and meditate. My organized prayer life is pretty disorganized~~it happens each day, but it tends to be a bit random. I imagine that I am not alone in that problem. One is the problem of my impatience in waiting for answers to my prayers. I don’t get the answers as quickly as I want them.

Instead of being patient many of us (including psalmists and prophets) cry out, "Where are you? Why have you forsaken me? How long, O Lord?" It's been hard for me to discover that God answers prayers in more than one way--sometimes with a yes, sometimes with a no, and sometimes with a wait you aren’t ready for the answer yet.

I have also learned over the years to be careful when asking questions. In my first church, the people leading the children’s sermon would always start out asking “how was your week?” I thought it was cute when kids in children’s moment would shout out answers. We learned one member had a mouse in their kitchen which thankfully the dad caught. The answers were often amusing, until I became a parent and I dreaded what would my children say. We have to be careful when we ask questions, because we might not like the answers. The same is true with prayer. We have to be careful because we may not like how God responds. Sometimes God's responses are hard to handle.

Paul prayed not once but three times to have a certain thorn removed from his flesh, but God said, "No, you can handle it." And Jesus asked if it be possible to let the cup of violent death pass from him. But he concluded, "Not my will, but yours be done," and his life was not spared.

We probably ought not dare to pray unless we're willing to enter into a conversation and be open to God's part of it. And that conversation must be genuine. God will certainly be honest with us so we can afford to be honest with God.

Now, ongoing conversation isn't always just dialogue--words in both directions. Sometimes it includes silence. I like that famous story of those two good friends, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau. It is said that one evening Thoreau came over to Emerson's house and, for a couple of hours, they both sat in front of the fire saying nothing. At the end of the time, Thoreau got up to leave, thanked Emerson for the evening, Emerson thanked him for coming, and that was their time together. Being silent together is one beautiful expression of the relationship between good friends.

So if you don't mind, I will take a little time to be in conversation with God as I silently and listen.