What Prayer Promises
It seems that a lot of religious types like to tell others that they should pray, as if prayer is a duty. I know that I, for one, can become lazy and forgetful, and sometimes I need a kick in the pants to get me back on my knees.
But prayer is less a duty than a gift. And what we usually need is not a scolding, but a reminder of the promise of prayer and the many gifts that God can lavish upon us through prayer.
The Best Gift of All
First things first. With prayer come a lot of gifts: faith, hope, courage, wisdom, and so on (more on that in a bit). But the key gift of prayer is God himself. If prayer is a conversation, it's about a relationship with Godand a relationship with God is less about things he can give us and more about getting to know God.
This is at the bull's eye of the Christian faith. Some people think Christianity is a set of morals or a certain way to worship or a philosophy of life. That's partly true, but primarily it's about experiencing God.
Let's do a quick Idiot's Guide to the Bible: Because of sin, people are alienated from God and cannot experience him truly or fully. Jesus, the Son of God, died and rose to new life to forgive people and make it possible for them to experience God again, in this life and forever.
That's basically it. And though we can experience God in a variety of ways, such as sitting in the woods or contemplating the stars, prayerconversing with Godis one of the most direct ways God has given us.
People experience God in prayer in a number of ways. Let's look at four and illustrate them with prayers that are found in Psalms, the prayer book of the Bible.
Gratitude
One of my college roommates was a religious skepticand a stubborn one, at that. We spent more than a few nights, sometimes going deep into the morning hours, debating theology and philosophy.
One 3 a.m. as we concluded another long philosophical debate about the existence of God, he said, "The only time I'm tempted to believe in God is when I'm in love."
That's because, I believe, he was looking for someone to thank.
Though we can be manifestly selfish a great deal of the time, there are moments when we're overwhelmed with the goodness of life. Maybe you have just taken in the sweeping vistas of the Grand Canyon, or studied a rose up close for 10 minutes. Maybe you've enjoyed a delightful meal with friends, or have just made love with your spouse. Perhaps you've just escaped some crisis, or maybe a child or a spouse has come through an operation. Whatever the cause, you're flooded with joy and a sense of deep appreciation, and you have this urge to say, "Thank you."
It's not enough just to "be thankful." This is the sort of drivel textbooks feed children these days when they discuss Thanksgiving. One of my kid's history books said the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving because they "were thankful." Uh, not quite. They wanted to say "Thank you,'' and, being devout Christians, they wanted to say it to someone in particularand it wasn't the Indians (though they were invited to say thanks as well). When the human heart is thankful, it wants to say "Thank you."
The interesting thing when we express our gratitude to God is this: We don't run out of gratitudeinstead, we're filled with even more gratitude and joy. That's why the Psalms are littered with prayers of thanksgiving. One example, from Psalm 138, will do for now:
I will give thanks, O Lord, with all my heart;I will sing your praises before the gods.I bow before your holy Temple as I worship,I will give thanks to your namefor your unfailing love and faithfulness.
Even some of the Psalms that begin with desperate pleas ("Lord, help!") end with a note of thanksgiving ("Nevertheless, Lord, I will praise you!"). More on the Psalms later.
Transcendence
This large word expresses a large idea: To experience transcendence is to experience something that goes beyond (transcends) what we can see, feel, hear, smell, or touch.
Several beer commercials on TV have recently focused on people at the beach or at a barbecue, playing, laughing, generally having a good time, with a beer in hand. Then someone says, "It doesn't get any better than this." Sometimes life just life is pretty darn nice (even without beer).
But then there are other times when life boxes us in. It seems small, petty, and pointless. And that's when we say, "Is that all there is?"
Well, no, it isn't. There is something, someone, who transcends this world, one whose Spirit is in the world but not of it, one who can enlarge the soul, expand the mind, and help us experience something beyond this world the Uncreated, the Infinite, the Immortal. One of the great mysteries of prayer is that we can experience this someone who cannot be adequately described, thought of, or imagined.
It would be a pretty dumb thing to say that we can experience the inaccessible, if it weren't for the fact that people have done so for thousands of years. The Psalmist refers to this experience when he writes:
Come, let us sing to the Lord!Let us give a joyous shout to the rock of our salvation. . . .For the Lord is a great God,the great king above all gods.He owns the depths of the earth,
and even the mightiest mountains are his.The sea belongs to him, for he made it.His hands formed the dry land, too.Come, let us worship and bow down.Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.
He's struggling to sing about the great God he has experienced, greater than his mind can fathom. One of my favorite hymns, which is titled by its first line, expresses it this way:
Immortal, invisible, God only wise,In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,Most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days,Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.
Forgiveness
Modern psychology has taught us that we sometimes feel guilty about things we have no business feeling guilty about. Some have run with that insight and have concluded that a healthy human being shouldn't experience guilt at all. Wrong! Emotionally healthy people should feel guilt when they've done something wrong.
This is especially true when we turn to God in prayer. God is good, holy, and infinitely perfect in love. We, however, are not good, nor are we holy or very perfect in love. Healthy people feel bad about that. As one prayer, used in many liturgies, puts it, "We confess that we have sinned against you, in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone." That about sums it up and that's guilt.
Some people, though, feel so guilty, they can't find the courage to face God. So, they stop praying. I was a youth pastor for a number of years, and in one church, one young man had a habit of drinking on Saturday night. Then he'd skip church the next day, he said, because he felt guilty coming to church.
I understand the feeling, but he didn't understand that one of the best places to go when you're guilty is to prayer. In prayer, we can experience the forgiveness of God as we can nowhere else. More on this in later chapters, but for now, let me quote sections of perhaps the most joyful experience of forgiveness ever recorded: Psalm 103.
Praise the Lord, I tell myself,and never forget the good things he does for me.He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases. . . .The Lord is merciful and gracious,he is slow to get angry and full of unfailing love. . . .He has not punished us for all our sins,nor does he deal with us as we deserve. . . .He has removed our rebellious actsas far away from us as the east is from the west.
Love
This brings us to the essence of experiencing God: experiencing his love. This arises from a gradually increasing awareness that God loves not just the world, not just humankind, not just people God also loves me, an individual with a personality and memories like no other, a person with unique faults, special talents, particular sins, and even moments of unusual kindness.
The awareness of God's love grows as we meditate on the teachings of Jesus (a form of prayer we'll talk about later). In passages such as Matthew 18:1214. Though Jesus is speaking here specifically about children, biblical scholars recognize that the point applies to every human person:
"If a shepherd has 100 sheep and one wanders away and is lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the 99 others and go out into the hills to search for the lost one? And if he finds it, he will surely rejoice over it more than over the 99 that didn't wander away! In the same way, is it not my heavenly Father's will that even one of these little ones should perish?"
Or, take another saying: "Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows" (Matthew 10:2930).
Don't think you can squeeze out of this: God cares about you even if he can't number the hairs on your head because you don't have any. (Believe me, I know this more and more everyday.)
Anyway, you get the idea. No wonder the Psalms are full of praise to God for his goodness and love to us:
Shout with joy to the Lord, O earth,Worship the Lord with gladness.Come before him, singing with joy . . .!
For the Lord is good.His unfailing love continues forever,and his faithfulness continues to each generation.Psalm 100
It Changes Us
We are changed by the people we come to know usually for the better. I'm a different and mostly better person after having lived with my wife for these 25 years. I don't lose my temper as often; I'm a much better listener; I'm more sensitive to other's needs; I even eat my vegetables now.
I don't know that experiencing God will help you like vegetables, but knowing God does have a way of changing a person at the very core and in a number of ways.
You Understand Yourself Better
Socrates knew what he was talking about when he said, "Know yourself." All improvement in the character of our lives begins with self-knowledge. What Socrates didn't see was that you can know yourself better by knowing God.
This only makes sense. If you know the creator of something, you'll know a lot more about the things he or she has created. If you understand, for instance, that a fiction writer lost her father when she was a child, you'll understand better why in so many of her novels a father figure plays an important role.
Likewise, if you understand the being who created you, you'll better understand yourself. As the author of Genesis put it, "God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself" (Genesis 1:27).
Theologians debate (as usual) exactly what this means, though they all agree that it has nothing to do with looks. But there is something central to our nature that is very much like God's nature. The better we understand the original, then the better we'll understand the image.
Wisdom
According to the Bible, a wise person is someone with "street smarts." It's not someone who spouts off important-sounding phrases about the meaning of life, but someone who knows what to do and what to say in all sorts of situations.
What exactly do you say to your boss when he asks you to do something you think is immoral? How do you figure out which college to go to? How do you handle your neighbor who leaves his garbage cans on your lawn?
This is the stuff of life, and we need wisdom to handle such situations. Prayer can help us grow in wisdom.
This doesn't mean that God will tell us exactly how to handle each situation that puzzles us. It does mean that, in prayer, we'll gain insights into ourselves and the situation we face. And those insights will help us gain "life smarts."
Courage and Hope
We'll cover these topics together because they go together in real life: We're more likely to have courage if we have hope. And life has a way of assaulting us so that we need regular doses of both.
Sometimes it's the big things that knock the wind out of us: A friend is battling colon cancer; a neighbor woman finds herself alone after 19 years of marriage because her husband left her; you discover your teenager is taking drugs; you've been fired.
Then again, sometimes it's lesser things that overwhelm us: a coworker who is a constant irritant, a bad back that throbs, a dead-end job.
Optimistic self-talk, will power, and gritting one's teeth will only get you so far. (Well, actually, they usually don't get me very far at all.) We quickly run out of resources to deal with these things and, almost instinctually, turn to God for courage to see us through and to work things for the good.
Building Character
To handle life's challenges and enjoy life's blessings, we need to be better people. You're never going to be able to help others unless you learn love and self-control. You're not going to be able to handle stress unless you get some peace into your heart. You're not going to be able to fully enjoy marriage or friendship unless you learn faithfulness. And on it goes.
Many places in the Bible summarize the most essential traits human beings need to possess and the way they can grow in them. One of my favorites is found in a letter the apostle (an apostle is "one who is sent out," such as the apostles who were sent by Jesus to spread his message) Paul wrote to the Galatians. He not only lists the traits, but he says that these come from an intimate acquaintance with God's spirit: "When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce his kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:2223).
You can't get any better than this.
It Changes Other Things
It has been said, "Prayer changes things? No! Prayer changes people, and people change things."
Don't believe it at least, not all of it.
Yeah, most of the time it's me who needs changing. If a coworker is driving me crazy because he pops into my office and wastes my time with his drivel about his pet iguana, I've got to change a few things. I may need to learn more patience. I may need to become more assertive and tell him to get back to work. I may need to learn to like iguanas.
When I pray, "Lord, help good old Pete not to come into my office so much," God may make it plain to me that I'm the one who needs to do something. In fact, most of the time, that's exactly what God will do.
But that's not the case all the time. Sometimes God really will change Pete. He may help Pete understand that he's being a bore, maybe by planting a thought in his head or by having someone else yell at him.
Other people say that prayer doesn't change circumstances, but only people.
Don't believe that, either. Sure, it doesn't happen every day, but once in a while God changes circumstances regardless of people. This is called a miracle.
When I pastored a small church, we would invite people during worship to announce prayer requests before we prayed. Most weeks, people requested prayers for someone's flu or operation. Once in a while, we'd hear really bad news, like the week that one woman mentioned that her brother had inoperable cancer.
As I did every week, I prayed that God would heal all those who were sick, recognizing in my own mind that most of the time God heals people through doctors and medicine. I didn't have a whole lot of faith or hope about this woman's brother.
About a month later, before the Sunday service was about to begin, this woman told me before the service that her brother had gone in for a check-up and that the cancer had disappeared.
I said, "How wonderful!" but inside I was shocked and disappointed that I, a minister of the gospel, was shocked when God acted like God and that the prayer worked.
The fact is, many people have such stories to tell. God does, in fact, heal people miraculously it’s not an everyday thing, as some will lead you to believe. But neither should you throw in your lot with the skeptics. A reasonable person has to look at all the stories of healing and say, well, it may not happen all the time, but once in a while God does indeed change circumstances.
Does Prayer Change God's Mind?
Here's one more saying to think about: "Prayer does not change God, but changes him who prays." That's a philosopher speaking, one whom I happen to like: Sfren Kierkegaard. I think he's mostly right mostly, that is.
Here's the deal according to Kierkegaard and others: God knows everything that's going to happen ahead of time. God has a perfect will. No puny human being is going to get the infinitely wise and perfect God to change his mind and do something stupid. Nor is God going to change the future he has mapped out because some poor Harry in Bismarck, South Dakota, needs some help.
But here's the deal according to Jesus (a "philosopher" with a tad bigger following than old Sfren): "You parents if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him" (Matthew 7:911).
Jesus assumes that prayer doesn't just change only us it also makes a difference in what God does.
If you know any classic Christian theology, you know that what I've just said borders on dumb. God is supposed to be "immutable “that is, unchanging. That's because, as I said, he's got a perfect will that doesn't need changing. We change because we're not perfect; when a better idea comes our way, we say, "Good idea. Never thought of that." Then we abandon the old way. God, on the other hand, never says, "Good idea. I never thought of that." He already has thought of it, believe me.
But then we have this Jesus fellow who seems to know God better than anyone saying that if we ask God for things, it makes a difference in what he does.
Major mystery time! Here's one way to think about this ultimately unsolvable problem:
God will not change his mind about some things, no matter how hard we pray. If we ask God, "Help me to rob this bank," or "I'd like you to give me the strength to kill my boss," he's not going to do it. He's never going to change his mind about things like that.
There are other things God is going to do whether we pray or not. No need to pray, "Lord, I pray that the sun will rise tomorrow morning," or "Lord, I really hope gravity continues working all day."
But apparently there are things that God doesn't have a definite plan about, and these things he leaves open-ended. He'll do them if we pray for them; he won't do them if we don't pray. It's not so much a matter of changing his eternal, wise plan it's actually part of his eternal, wise plan that we get to decide some stuff.
Here's how Presbyterian theologian Donald Bloesch put it: "God's ultimate will is unchanging, but the way in which he chooses to realize this will is dependent on the prayers of his children. He wants us as covenant partners, not as automons or slaves."
That's how it works with my kids and me. Some things I'll never permit, no matter what ("Dad, can we each have TVs in our rooms?"). Some things I'll do whether they ask for it or not I'm going to pay the mortgage every month. But with some things, I'm open. For instance, I want my kids to try to play an instrument for a few years, but I really don't care which ones they play. I might direct them toward piano because I like it best and if they don't say anything, they'll end up playing piano. But if one of them says, "Dad, I'd like to play the flute," that's fine. Otherwise, they're going to get piano lessons.
So, no, prayer doesn't change God or his perfect will. But part of his perfect will is that we learn how to use our own wills wisely. That's one of the things prayer is for. In some cases, it helps us determine God's perfect will and align our wills with his. The well-known archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, put it this way: "God is perfect love and perfect wisdom. We do not pray in order to change his will, but to bring our wills into harmony with his."
In other cases, prayer gives us the wisdom and courage to shape our lives within God's larger will. One of the lifelong learning curves of prayer is to learn to distinguish when we should just accept God's will and when we should keep pleading for him to do what we think seems to be best. As one famous prayer, called the Serenity Prayer (said to be authored by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr) puts it, "Lord, grant me the serenity to change the things I can, to accept the things I cannot, and the wisdom to know the difference."
Friday, December 12, 2008
What Prayer Isn't (and Is)
What Prayer Isn't (and Is)
One reason many of us are intimidated by prayer is that a lot of people such as ministers (like I was), writers (like I am), and theologians (like I wish I was sometimes) have taken something that's basically pretty simple and have managed to make it pretty complicated. Yes, prayer is a mystery, but let's not make it more complicated than it really is. To begin with, let's clear up some misconceptions about prayer.
Clearing up Some Confusion
I've run across some pretty interesting definitions of prayer over the years okay, not so much "pretty interesting" as "pretty confusing."
Prayer As Work?
The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said, "To lift up the hands in prayer is to give God glory, but a man with a dung fork in his hand and a woman with a slop pail give him glory, too." Indeed, people in most any activity can give glory to God in their chosen activity. But some people have gone a step further and said, "Building a chair or bundling hay or fixing a flat tireanything we do to God's glory is a prayer." Nope.
Fixing a flat tire is, well, auto mechanics. Building a chair is carpentry. Certainly, you can do these things well so well that they make the world a better place and so well they give you honor and God glory. These activities can be like prayer (focused, devoted, selfless), but they are not prayer.
Hyper spiritualizing
How about this one: "Prayer is a supernatural activity." This is an example of a definition that makes prayer sound more spiritual than it really is. Certainly, in prayers we're getting in touch with a Being who lies beyond nature. But prayer itself is a common, ordinary, everyday sort of activity, like talking. Natural people in natural settings use natural words when they pray all the time.
Self-Help
Then there's this: "Prayer is a way of lifting ourselves." As if we had the power to lift ourselves into the presence of God. As if we need to lift ourselves in order to talk with God. Again, the problem lies in overspiritualizing things. If anything, God lowers himself to us in prayermore on that later.
Cosmic Shrink
I hate this one in particular: "Prayer is God's psychotherapy for his children." This isn't so much what prayer is as much as what prayer does. In other words, according to this misguided understanding, prayer helps all those weaklings who need a crutch to get through lifeyou know, the type of people who need therapy. So these people go to God. Not only are his rates cheap, but it turns out that he's also an awfully good listener. Let's get something straight at the beginning of this book: Prayer is for the strong, the weak, the smart, the stupid, the wise, the foolish, people in their better moments, people in their worst moments. It's for everybody.
Wishin' and Hopin'
One preacher said, "A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned Godward." I almost like this one. It's human, at least. We know what a wish is, and we can figure out what it means to turn Godward. But put this definition in the wrong hands, and it perpetuates the childish stereotype that prayer is about asking and getting things from God.
Shhhh!
Given my previous reaction, you may think I love this definition: "A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until, in the end, he realized that prayer is listening." Nice sentiment, but it's not really true. Listening should be a part of prayerin fact, much more a part than we usually make it. But prayer is more than shutting your mouth or your mind when in the presence of God.
Getting Formal
The formal definitions of prayer that you find in dictionaries and encyclopedias aren't much help, either. The Encarta Encyclopedia, for example, says this: "In its broadest sense, prayer is any ritual form designed to bring one into closer relation to whatever one believes to be the ultimate." Unfortunately, people have some pretty creative ideas about what is "the ultimate." For some it's fine art, for others it's Captain America comics, for others it's sex (okay, close). For Kevin Costner in the movie Field of Dreams, baseball was the ultimate. When he built a baseball field in the middle of his cornfield, it was like an act of worship. Steady meditation on the Mona Lisa is like prayer. The ecstasy of sex is akin to the ecstasy some have experienced in prayer. But none of these activities are prayer.
Talking to God
Clement of Alexandria, a third-century Christian philosopher from Egypt, said it best and most simply: "Prayer is conversation with God." Pretty simple, huh? Let's make sure it's clear, though.
If prayer is conversation, it means first that we talk to God. Prayer is not just wishing and hoping. It is not meditating on ultimate things. It is not doing things for God. It is not lifting ourselves into a foggy spiritual state. Prayer is talking to God and expressing our thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams, and fears to God. Most of the time, this means using words. Some mystical types say that mere human words cannot adequately convey the feelings and thoughts they wish to express to God. Certainly, words have severe limitations; any writer will admit that. And, of course, there are nonverbal ways to pray: guided imagery, music, painting, and so on. But let's not give up on words too quickly. Think about it: Words are one of the main ways God has communicated with usin the Old and New Testaments (lots of words there!).
Furthermore, the words of Jesus, as much as his death and resurrection, have inspired people through the ages. And when the Bible sums up who Jesus is, it says this: "In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Biblical scholars say "the Word" here means much more than "words." But it means at least that muchthat is, Jesus is God's way of communicating to us. The word is so important to God that he's willing to use it as a name. I may give my children presents; I may coach their soccer teams; I may give them kisses in the morning and hugs at night. But if I never speak with themand especially if I never say to them, ''I love you"there is a large void in our relationship. In the same way, there are many ways to nurture my relationship with God, but the key way is by speaking with him.
Schizophrenia or Prayer?
On the other hand, if prayer is conversation with God, it means that God also speaks to us. "Sure he does," you say. Maybe it's a one-way conversation, you think, but not two-way. A Moses or an Isaiahor people locked up in state hospitalsmay hear God speak, but most of us don't care to keep that sort of company. But as comedian Lily Tomlin put it, "Why is it when we talk to God, we're said to be prayingbut when God talks to us, we're schizophrenics?" The problem here lies in the stereotype: a deep, booming voice falling out of the sky, sternly setting out instructions of one sort or another. Another stock image is the dreamy, mystical encounter: no voices, just a bright light that surrounds and beams down on the person, who freezes in wonder, staring into the light, countenance shining with beatific delight, silently taking in the secret message. One of the things prayer teaches is that God speaks to us in more ways than we can count, in "voices" we can hardly imagine. It also teaches us how to hear God. And speak to us he does; we miss out on one of the great wonders of prayer if we neglect this part of prayer.
Forgetest Thou Queen Elizabeth I
If prayer is conversing with God, it helps us toss out a lot of unhelpful stereotypes right at the start. For one, the idea that God understands only people who talk like Shakespeare and litter their prayers with "thee" and "thou" and "shouldst" and "wouldst." There's a time and a place for such prayers, just as there is a time and a place to watch a Shakespeare play. But it's not something you should do at home (at least without a grammarian present!), nor is it a very effective way to converse with God.
This also means that prayer is not a formal speech. If asked to praybefore a meal, for instance most people will balk. They become nervous, hesitant, awkward. "Uh, well, I don't know. You know, I'm, not really very good at praying. Why don't you ask
someone else?" That's because they think good English is demanded and that a formal outline is to be followed, after which they'll be judged for their performance. In other words, they think they're being asked to make a speechsomething like, "O Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, giver of all blessings: We would give you hearty thanks for the bountiful meal set before us, and for the hands that have so lovingly prepared it. In the name of him who loved us and died for us. Amen." There are occasions when formal prayers are called for: at weddings and funerals, at graduation ceremonies, when installing someone into office, at worship. But in everyday life, prayer is not a speech at God as much as a means of speaking with God. Therefore, it doesn't have to elicit any more fear than talking to another person. When it comes to meal time graces, for example, it should be no more difficult to say "thank you'' to God for the food than it is to say "thank you" to the host for cooking: "Lord, thank you for this food and for those who prepared it. Amen."
A Relationship
When it comes to praying to God, you see, it's not much different than speaking with your spouse, a friend, or anyone else you're trying to have a close relationship with. In her classic book Prayer: Conversing with God, Rosalind Rinker put it this way: "Prayer is the expression of the human heart in conversation with God. The more natural the prayer, the more real he becomes. It has all been simplified for me to this extent: Prayer is a dialogue between two persons who love each other." Prayer is not a religious speech to a divine audience, or the groveling petition of a servant to an arbitrary master, or vague, spiritual thoughts directed to no one in particular. It is one key means of drawing ourselves closer to God and opening ourselves up so that God might draw closer to us. Of course, in terms of Christian theology, God is always closecloser than we are to ourselvesand he knows us better than we know ourselves.
One of the Psalms puts it this way:
O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.You know when I sit down or stand up.You know my every thought when far away. . . .You know what I'm going to say even before I say it, Lord. . . .Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to know. I can never escape your spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there.If I ride the wings of the morning,if I dwell in the farthest oceans,even there your hand will guide me,and your strength will support me.Psalm 139
And how do we better understand this hand that silently guides us? How do we take in this strength that quietly supports us? You guessed it: prayer.
Problems Are No Problem
Some people, however, can't imagine that God has anything to say to them. Some wrestle with low self-esteem or are haunted by guilt, and they can't imagine that a holy and omnipotent God who rules the universe has time for them or has any interest in their "petty" little problemslet alone have a relationship with them. Others fight against the idea of prayer as conversation because they're afraid it may be true. If they acknowledge it and try to listen to God, some fear that they'll be told to sell their possessions and take up a missionary life in Africa. Others fear that by speaking with "the way, the truth, and the life," they will be forced to explore troubled regions of their inner selfareas they'd just as soon let be.
Some say they've tried prayer and that it didn't do any good. Or, they don't have the patience for it. Or, that they pray by doing good works. Some say it sounds too simple to be true. And on it goes. There are lots of reasonsmany of them good onesto distrust all this talk about conversation with God. Indeed, in many respects, it is preposterous to believe that God exists and that God wants to be in intimate relationships with people like you and me. But we are not the first age to have doubts about prayerafter all, it is a mystery, something that can never be fully explained or fully understood. It is something that believers have marveled at for centuries. One of the Psalms put it like this:
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers the moon and the stars your have set in place what are mortals, that you should think of us?mere humans, that you should care for us? Psalm 8
Then again, any relationship is a mystery. After 40 years of marriage, a husband and wife still look at each other some days and wonder, "Who in the heck are you?" and "Why do you still love me?" Yet without fully understanding, the relationship goes on and is enjoyed immensely.
In the course of this book, we'll look at these and other problems that prayer presents, and we'll examine the ways Christians have handled them. As you'll see, though, problems are no reason to stop praying. Nor is the fact that prayer is ultimately a mystery. The most mysterious and complex things of life can be expressed in the simplest ways. When I say to my wife, "I love you," there's a lot going on therea lot of history, a lot of pain, a lot of ecstasy, a lot of wonder. But this remains a pretty darn good summing up. Prayer has history, pain, ecstasy, wonder, and a host of other dimensionsbut, in the end, it is conversation with God.
One reason many of us are intimidated by prayer is that a lot of people such as ministers (like I was), writers (like I am), and theologians (like I wish I was sometimes) have taken something that's basically pretty simple and have managed to make it pretty complicated. Yes, prayer is a mystery, but let's not make it more complicated than it really is. To begin with, let's clear up some misconceptions about prayer.
Clearing up Some Confusion
I've run across some pretty interesting definitions of prayer over the years okay, not so much "pretty interesting" as "pretty confusing."
Prayer As Work?
The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said, "To lift up the hands in prayer is to give God glory, but a man with a dung fork in his hand and a woman with a slop pail give him glory, too." Indeed, people in most any activity can give glory to God in their chosen activity. But some people have gone a step further and said, "Building a chair or bundling hay or fixing a flat tireanything we do to God's glory is a prayer." Nope.
Fixing a flat tire is, well, auto mechanics. Building a chair is carpentry. Certainly, you can do these things well so well that they make the world a better place and so well they give you honor and God glory. These activities can be like prayer (focused, devoted, selfless), but they are not prayer.
Hyper spiritualizing
How about this one: "Prayer is a supernatural activity." This is an example of a definition that makes prayer sound more spiritual than it really is. Certainly, in prayers we're getting in touch with a Being who lies beyond nature. But prayer itself is a common, ordinary, everyday sort of activity, like talking. Natural people in natural settings use natural words when they pray all the time.
Self-Help
Then there's this: "Prayer is a way of lifting ourselves." As if we had the power to lift ourselves into the presence of God. As if we need to lift ourselves in order to talk with God. Again, the problem lies in overspiritualizing things. If anything, God lowers himself to us in prayermore on that later.
Cosmic Shrink
I hate this one in particular: "Prayer is God's psychotherapy for his children." This isn't so much what prayer is as much as what prayer does. In other words, according to this misguided understanding, prayer helps all those weaklings who need a crutch to get through lifeyou know, the type of people who need therapy. So these people go to God. Not only are his rates cheap, but it turns out that he's also an awfully good listener. Let's get something straight at the beginning of this book: Prayer is for the strong, the weak, the smart, the stupid, the wise, the foolish, people in their better moments, people in their worst moments. It's for everybody.
Wishin' and Hopin'
One preacher said, "A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned Godward." I almost like this one. It's human, at least. We know what a wish is, and we can figure out what it means to turn Godward. But put this definition in the wrong hands, and it perpetuates the childish stereotype that prayer is about asking and getting things from God.
Shhhh!
Given my previous reaction, you may think I love this definition: "A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until, in the end, he realized that prayer is listening." Nice sentiment, but it's not really true. Listening should be a part of prayerin fact, much more a part than we usually make it. But prayer is more than shutting your mouth or your mind when in the presence of God.
Getting Formal
The formal definitions of prayer that you find in dictionaries and encyclopedias aren't much help, either. The Encarta Encyclopedia, for example, says this: "In its broadest sense, prayer is any ritual form designed to bring one into closer relation to whatever one believes to be the ultimate." Unfortunately, people have some pretty creative ideas about what is "the ultimate." For some it's fine art, for others it's Captain America comics, for others it's sex (okay, close). For Kevin Costner in the movie Field of Dreams, baseball was the ultimate. When he built a baseball field in the middle of his cornfield, it was like an act of worship. Steady meditation on the Mona Lisa is like prayer. The ecstasy of sex is akin to the ecstasy some have experienced in prayer. But none of these activities are prayer.
Talking to God
Clement of Alexandria, a third-century Christian philosopher from Egypt, said it best and most simply: "Prayer is conversation with God." Pretty simple, huh? Let's make sure it's clear, though.
If prayer is conversation, it means first that we talk to God. Prayer is not just wishing and hoping. It is not meditating on ultimate things. It is not doing things for God. It is not lifting ourselves into a foggy spiritual state. Prayer is talking to God and expressing our thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams, and fears to God. Most of the time, this means using words. Some mystical types say that mere human words cannot adequately convey the feelings and thoughts they wish to express to God. Certainly, words have severe limitations; any writer will admit that. And, of course, there are nonverbal ways to pray: guided imagery, music, painting, and so on. But let's not give up on words too quickly. Think about it: Words are one of the main ways God has communicated with usin the Old and New Testaments (lots of words there!).
Furthermore, the words of Jesus, as much as his death and resurrection, have inspired people through the ages. And when the Bible sums up who Jesus is, it says this: "In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Biblical scholars say "the Word" here means much more than "words." But it means at least that muchthat is, Jesus is God's way of communicating to us. The word is so important to God that he's willing to use it as a name. I may give my children presents; I may coach their soccer teams; I may give them kisses in the morning and hugs at night. But if I never speak with themand especially if I never say to them, ''I love you"there is a large void in our relationship. In the same way, there are many ways to nurture my relationship with God, but the key way is by speaking with him.
Schizophrenia or Prayer?
On the other hand, if prayer is conversation with God, it means that God also speaks to us. "Sure he does," you say. Maybe it's a one-way conversation, you think, but not two-way. A Moses or an Isaiahor people locked up in state hospitalsmay hear God speak, but most of us don't care to keep that sort of company. But as comedian Lily Tomlin put it, "Why is it when we talk to God, we're said to be prayingbut when God talks to us, we're schizophrenics?" The problem here lies in the stereotype: a deep, booming voice falling out of the sky, sternly setting out instructions of one sort or another. Another stock image is the dreamy, mystical encounter: no voices, just a bright light that surrounds and beams down on the person, who freezes in wonder, staring into the light, countenance shining with beatific delight, silently taking in the secret message. One of the things prayer teaches is that God speaks to us in more ways than we can count, in "voices" we can hardly imagine. It also teaches us how to hear God. And speak to us he does; we miss out on one of the great wonders of prayer if we neglect this part of prayer.
Forgetest Thou Queen Elizabeth I
If prayer is conversing with God, it helps us toss out a lot of unhelpful stereotypes right at the start. For one, the idea that God understands only people who talk like Shakespeare and litter their prayers with "thee" and "thou" and "shouldst" and "wouldst." There's a time and a place for such prayers, just as there is a time and a place to watch a Shakespeare play. But it's not something you should do at home (at least without a grammarian present!), nor is it a very effective way to converse with God.
This also means that prayer is not a formal speech. If asked to praybefore a meal, for instance most people will balk. They become nervous, hesitant, awkward. "Uh, well, I don't know. You know, I'm, not really very good at praying. Why don't you ask
someone else?" That's because they think good English is demanded and that a formal outline is to be followed, after which they'll be judged for their performance. In other words, they think they're being asked to make a speechsomething like, "O Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, giver of all blessings: We would give you hearty thanks for the bountiful meal set before us, and for the hands that have so lovingly prepared it. In the name of him who loved us and died for us. Amen." There are occasions when formal prayers are called for: at weddings and funerals, at graduation ceremonies, when installing someone into office, at worship. But in everyday life, prayer is not a speech at God as much as a means of speaking with God. Therefore, it doesn't have to elicit any more fear than talking to another person. When it comes to meal time graces, for example, it should be no more difficult to say "thank you'' to God for the food than it is to say "thank you" to the host for cooking: "Lord, thank you for this food and for those who prepared it. Amen."
A Relationship
When it comes to praying to God, you see, it's not much different than speaking with your spouse, a friend, or anyone else you're trying to have a close relationship with. In her classic book Prayer: Conversing with God, Rosalind Rinker put it this way: "Prayer is the expression of the human heart in conversation with God. The more natural the prayer, the more real he becomes. It has all been simplified for me to this extent: Prayer is a dialogue between two persons who love each other." Prayer is not a religious speech to a divine audience, or the groveling petition of a servant to an arbitrary master, or vague, spiritual thoughts directed to no one in particular. It is one key means of drawing ourselves closer to God and opening ourselves up so that God might draw closer to us. Of course, in terms of Christian theology, God is always closecloser than we are to ourselvesand he knows us better than we know ourselves.
One of the Psalms puts it this way:
O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.You know when I sit down or stand up.You know my every thought when far away. . . .You know what I'm going to say even before I say it, Lord. . . .Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to know. I can never escape your spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there.If I ride the wings of the morning,if I dwell in the farthest oceans,even there your hand will guide me,and your strength will support me.Psalm 139
And how do we better understand this hand that silently guides us? How do we take in this strength that quietly supports us? You guessed it: prayer.
Problems Are No Problem
Some people, however, can't imagine that God has anything to say to them. Some wrestle with low self-esteem or are haunted by guilt, and they can't imagine that a holy and omnipotent God who rules the universe has time for them or has any interest in their "petty" little problemslet alone have a relationship with them. Others fight against the idea of prayer as conversation because they're afraid it may be true. If they acknowledge it and try to listen to God, some fear that they'll be told to sell their possessions and take up a missionary life in Africa. Others fear that by speaking with "the way, the truth, and the life," they will be forced to explore troubled regions of their inner selfareas they'd just as soon let be.
Some say they've tried prayer and that it didn't do any good. Or, they don't have the patience for it. Or, that they pray by doing good works. Some say it sounds too simple to be true. And on it goes. There are lots of reasonsmany of them good onesto distrust all this talk about conversation with God. Indeed, in many respects, it is preposterous to believe that God exists and that God wants to be in intimate relationships with people like you and me. But we are not the first age to have doubts about prayerafter all, it is a mystery, something that can never be fully explained or fully understood. It is something that believers have marveled at for centuries. One of the Psalms put it like this:
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers the moon and the stars your have set in place what are mortals, that you should think of us?mere humans, that you should care for us? Psalm 8
Then again, any relationship is a mystery. After 40 years of marriage, a husband and wife still look at each other some days and wonder, "Who in the heck are you?" and "Why do you still love me?" Yet without fully understanding, the relationship goes on and is enjoyed immensely.
In the course of this book, we'll look at these and other problems that prayer presents, and we'll examine the ways Christians have handled them. As you'll see, though, problems are no reason to stop praying. Nor is the fact that prayer is ultimately a mystery. The most mysterious and complex things of life can be expressed in the simplest ways. When I say to my wife, "I love you," there's a lot going on therea lot of history, a lot of pain, a lot of ecstasy, a lot of wonder. But this remains a pretty darn good summing up. Prayer has history, pain, ecstasy, wonder, and a host of other dimensionsbut, in the end, it is conversation with God.
Let Us Pray
LET US PRAY
Prayer (in Jewish/Christian tradition, anyway) has been around for a long time at least 4,000 years. Yet for all that experience, prayer is still something that's pretty hard to get a handle on. It is ultimately a mystery. God is a mystery, certainly that we can communicate with God is even more a wonder. But through the centuries, many people have experienced that mystery and have found it well, wonderful.
This has been an astonishing experience for generation after generation because of what prayer is and what it does. Before we can look at the mechanics of prayer, we need to understand exactly what we're talking about when we use the word "prayer."
Prayer (in Jewish/Christian tradition, anyway) has been around for a long time at least 4,000 years. Yet for all that experience, prayer is still something that's pretty hard to get a handle on. It is ultimately a mystery. God is a mystery, certainly that we can communicate with God is even more a wonder. But through the centuries, many people have experienced that mystery and have found it well, wonderful.
This has been an astonishing experience for generation after generation because of what prayer is and what it does. Before we can look at the mechanics of prayer, we need to understand exactly what we're talking about when we use the word "prayer."
Monday, December 1, 2008
DIVINE GRACE – JAMNER MIRACLE
DIVINE GRACE – JAMNER MIRACLE
Baba's interest is in every one in whom a devotee is interested. Nana was deeply interested in the fate, health, and life of his daughter Minatai. About 1904 or so, Nana Chandorkar was Deputy Collector atJamner (then unconnected by train with Jalgaon). He was at Jamner along with his pregnant daughter, whose pregnancy was in a very advanced state. Unexpectedly the delivery, being the first delivery, proved trouble some and risky. The pains were prolonged for many long hours, and the poor young lady suffered torture.
What could poor Nana do? He knew that Baba was aware of everything, and that there was no necessity to send a telegram or letter to him. So, he must do what he could in his own place. Being a very orthodoxand pious Brahmin, he started a Kastanivarana Homa with the help of his Sastri. Still no relief was obtained. All the while, Baba was fully aware of what was going on at Jamner.
At evening time, he called Ramgir Bua, a Gosavi, whom he used to call `Babugir'. That Babugir was about to start away from there but Baba commissioned him to go to Jamner first in order to deliver to Nana Chandorkar a packet of udhi and a set of papers containing Bhisama's Aratis for the puja of Baba, modelled on the Pandharpur Aratis. Someone present handed over Rs.2/- to the Gosavi to enable him to perform this journey. That Gosavi complained that the rail portion of his journey, namely, Kopergaon to Jalgaon, itself would take up Rs. 1-14-0 leaving only a balance of 2 annas to cover the ordinary roadjourney of 30 miles. Baba simply told him, "Babugir, Go, everything will be provided." Accordingly the Gosavi started.
Baba's interest is in every one in whom a devotee is interested. Nana was deeply interested in the fate, health, and life of his daughter Minatai. About 1904 or so, Nana Chandorkar was Deputy Collector atJamner (then unconnected by train with Jalgaon). He was at Jamner along with his pregnant daughter, whose pregnancy was in a very advanced state. Unexpectedly the delivery, being the first delivery, proved trouble some and risky. The pains were prolonged for many long hours, and the poor young lady suffered torture.
What could poor Nana do? He knew that Baba was aware of everything, and that there was no necessity to send a telegram or letter to him. So, he must do what he could in his own place. Being a very orthodoxand pious Brahmin, he started a Kastanivarana Homa with the help of his Sastri. Still no relief was obtained. All the while, Baba was fully aware of what was going on at Jamner.
At evening time, he called Ramgir Bua, a Gosavi, whom he used to call `Babugir'. That Babugir was about to start away from there but Baba commissioned him to go to Jamner first in order to deliver to Nana Chandorkar a packet of udhi and a set of papers containing Bhisama's Aratis for the puja of Baba, modelled on the Pandharpur Aratis. Someone present handed over Rs.2/- to the Gosavi to enable him to perform this journey. That Gosavi complained that the rail portion of his journey, namely, Kopergaon to Jalgaon, itself would take up Rs. 1-14-0 leaving only a balance of 2 annas to cover the ordinary roadjourney of 30 miles. Baba simply told him, "Babugir, Go, everything will be provided." Accordingly the Gosavi started.
He got down at Jalgaon and was in a quandary. Railway officials were troubling visitors coming by train from infected areas, with a view to enforce quarantine rules, and there was no method by which hecould escape them and go to Jamner. Suddenly he found a liveried peon bawling out, `Who is Babugir from Shirdi?' Then this Bua said. "I am Ramgir Bua whom Baba used to call `Babugir, and I am from Shirdi." Then that peon said that he had been sent by his `master' with a tonga and a horse to fetch him to Jamner. He gave him a meal also. Babugir fancied that Baba had sent word or wired to Chandorkar, andthus provided conveyance and meal for him. The distance of 30 miles was soon covered up by the tonga, and when very near Nana's quarters, the carriage stopped. The peon told Bua, "There is the master'shouse; you had better go".
Babugir got down for a natural purpose and when he turned back and looked, there was no peon, no horse, no carriage, nothing at all. How they could disappear on a clearly visible road, he could notunderstand. But anyhow right in front of him was the Deputy Collector's house. So he went there and found the Deputy Collector and his wife waiting. They had heard the rumble of a horse and carriage and were anxiously waiting. Babugir handed over to Nana the udhi saying, "This is Baba's udhi sent to you for your daughter's sake."
At once the udhi was applied to Minatai, and thereafter it was no longer Minatai that was crying but her new born child, for she had easy delivery. The arati paper also was handed over to Nana for his approval, so that it might be used at Baba's puja at Shirdi. When Bua thanked the Deputy Collector for his timely sending of the cart and food, Nana was taken aback. He said he was not aware of anybody coming from Shirdi and so had not sent anything. Then it was both Bua and the Deputy Collector understood what Baba meant when he said, "Go, Babugir, everything will be provided".
It was Baba's extraordinary powers that provided the carriage, the horse, the liveried peon and the meal, without Chandorkar knowing anything about them. This shows how deeply Baba was interested in thewelfare of Nana's family, and how he took upon himself and used his mysterious powers to help him in such extremities as a difficult parturition in a far off place like Jamner at a time when no proper medical aid was available. Thus Baba saved not merely Chandorkar's life but also the life of those connected with or dependent on him, by the use of all his supernatural powers.
Courtesy: HH Pujyasri B. V. Narasimha Swamiji
Equal vision
Equal vision
SARVABHUTATMA BHUTATMATVAM
Every night Mahlsapathy used to feed a crippled bitch, and one day, having fed it, he said, "Go". But the creature did not stir. He took a stick and gave it a beating and then it howled with pain and ran away. That night when Mahlsapathy went to the Mosque and shampooed Baba's legs, Bapu Saheb, Dada Kelkar and others were with him. Baba said, "Arre, there is a bitch, sickly like me, in the village. Everybody is beating it." Then at once Mahlsapathy, remembering his behaviour repented his mistake.
Some may fancy that merely rebuking Mahlsapathy for mercilessly hitting a bitch for not moving out when told to go is a mere ordinary lesson in Ahimsa or fair treatment of brutes. But from the stand point of Baba's development of pupils, it is much more. Any one who is capable of hitting a bitch naturally thinks poorly of a bitch and highly of himself, and does not hesitate to injure a "lower creature". This is not merely a vice but evidence of Rajas Tamasa obscuring the soul's light – a very serious obstacle to theattainment of equal vision.
`Somatvam yogauchyate, Nirdosam hi samam Brahman Tasmat Brahmani te sthitah' (BG V-19) to the attainment of `Sarvabhutatma bhutatmatvam', that is, realizing God or the Self in every creature and paying reverence to it (BG V-7).
First, about equal vision, it will be noted that alike in the Bhagavat Gita and Krishnoddhava Samvada, (SB XI) samatva of Equal View is repeatedly stressed as a qualification for and a mark of the Jnani. If a man has realized Brahman (i.e., got Jnana), then all creatures are alike Brahman, and he treats them all equally and make no invidious distinctions between them, worshipping one, beating another, etc., Vidya Vinaya Sampanne Brahmane Gavi hastini Scuni chaiva Sevapakecha Panditah Samadarscinah (BG V-18). The want of samatva denotes a failure to rise above vulgar mediocrity; and beating shows the need for a great deal of effort to rise to heights of equal vision. Equal vision is sometimes considered a mere poetical ideal, which is not practical.
Many may think it not worthwhile, when they are in active life, when still living in the family, to aim at equal vision-samatva. But Baba did not take that view. Mahlsapathy was a family man, `grihasta' living with his family up to the last and died in the midst of his relations. Yet Baba raised him nearer and nearer to the level of equal vision, and the first step in that effort is to stop cruelty to animals. So his warning against the beating of the bitch must be viewed in the light of the need for achieving equal vision.
Higher steps are not achieved merely by stopping the beating of animals. Higher steps are accelerated by Baba's highest plank, namely, seeing of Himself or God in all creatures. Sarvabhutatma bhutatmatvam. That is Baba wanted his highest bhaktas to feel strong enough about his (Baba's) being God. They should feel his being in all animals and consequently God's being in all animals, a result which should be manifested by either mental or even actual physical worship offered to some animals at any rate.
Namdev's recognition of Vittal in a dog, after he had been trained by the Guru Visoba Kesar in equal vision and in the treatment of all objects as manifestation of God, has already been mentioned inprevious volume. Mahlsapathy was the best fitted to gain that faculty of seeing (Sai) God in a creature or to sing or feel with Kabir "Sabghata Atma Rama Govinda – Hari Bole Hari Bole Bhai". In the Bhagavata recognizing the difficulty of actual physical worship being offered to all creatures, the advice is given that the worship may be mental, and the stanza runs: -
Manasaiva etani hhutani
Pranamet Bahumanayan
Iswaro Jiva kalayo
Pravishto Bhagavaniti
This means, `Remembering the fact that all these creatures have an Atma or Soul and that the Soul is but the reflection or part of God, one should feel that God is in all these creatures, esteem them and worship them only mentally'.
It is not known whether Mahlsapathy, Chandorkar, or any other devotee actually did this worship as a sadhana when he met creature after creature or any creature or succeeded in feeling that God'sreflection, that is, God Himself in another form was in every creature. But this was evidently Baba's intention, and one might presume that some of the bhaktas of Baba did achieve a fairly high degree of progress in this sadhana.
One Lakshmi going to Baba's tomb, shortly after He passed away, was bemoaning his loss and prayed to him to show his form to her. As she was moving out, she met a serpent on her way. At once she cried out, `Baba, if you show me your form in this serpent shape, how am I to get on?' This is an interesting instance. If even a rustic woman, not presumed to know anything about higher culture or the higher sadhanas in the Sastras was able to recognize or treat Baba as being in a snake, surely other bhaktas of Baba may be presumed to have made some advance in this all important matter.
The great importance of this step of recognizing God in all creatures can be inferred from the fact that the lesson is repeated more than a dozen times in Bhagavad Gita and in Ekadasa Skanda of Bhagavata i.e.,Uddhava Gita. Naturally the utterance in the Upanishad `'Sarvam kaluidam Brahma', that is. `All this manifested Universe is God' cannot be achieved by one who fails to go even through the first step, namely, treating the living creatures in the Universe as manifestations of God.
Courtesy: HH Pujyasri B. V. Narasimha Swamiji
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
