Live Generously

I’ve got plenty more from Pagitt’s book to talk about, but here is a short reflection on prayer that I wrote as a bulletin insert at church a little while back.  I got a lot of positive comments from it, so I thought I’d share it here.

First, a confession: My name is Brian Kiley, I work at a church, and I struggle with prayer. There, I said it. It’s out in the open. What you are reading comes from a guy who makes no claims of expertise, but rather identifies himself as a struggling sojourner who has spent his entire adult life trying to learn to communicate authentically with his God…with limited success. In saying this, I hope to give you permission to admit your own struggles with prayer, and to understand that having difficulty with prayer is ok. I also hope to encourage you to press on in your pursuit of our oft elusive God, seeing your difficulties in prayer as challenges to be overcome, not insurmountable obstacles.

Lately some books I’ve read have alerted me to the fact that perhaps the difficulty I’ve experienced in building a solid prayer life is partially attributable to my use of improper raw materials, namely, improper words. Consider this quote from pastor and author Eugene Peterson:

“In a kind of rough-and-ready sorting out, most words can be set in one of two piles: words for communion and words for communication. Words for communion are used to tell stories, make love, nurture intimacies, and develop trust. Words for communication are used to buy stocks, sell cauliflower, direct traffic, and teach algebra. Both piles of words are necessary, but words for communion are our specialty.”

If I were to take an inventory of my prayer life, I would find myself fully stocked up on words for communication while possessing a dearth of words for communion. In short, my time with God in prayer consists chiefly of my presenting of a laundry list of requests to God that I would like to see him address in a timely fashion. These requests are predominately selfish though not entirely, as I often pray for friends or students in our college ministry. It is not that there is anything wrong with offering such prayers, per se, but a prayer life built on a foundation of communication is bound to be unsatisfying because our God is not a God of communication.

Our God is a God of communion. One who desires for us to learn to simply be with him. One who desires for us to see prayer not as a means of altering his activity in the world but rather a means of declaring our desire to submit ourselves to him so that we can join in what he is already doing. Prayer then is something that is relational, submissive, and freeing, rather than agenda-driven and demanding. It’s a casual cup of coffee on the patio rather than a morning business meeting. Prayer is built on the foundation of communion with God, being with God, loving God. Only this communion creates the proper context for communication.[1]

So then, from one prayer struggler to another, my encouragement to you is to spend less time communicating with God this week and a little more time communing. It is then that we experience the majesty of who our God is.

Let me leave you with a short passage for meditation as you sit with our great God this week. Romans 11:33-12:1: “Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual act of worship.”