Not Just Words

"Prayer is not asking.
It is a longing of the soul.
It is daily admission of one's weakness.
It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart."

- Mahatma Gandhi

Thoughtless words can get you into serious trouble - ask Don Imus.

The so called "right of free speech" has taken a few serious and questionable bumps and turns over the years.


These days the legal privilege of being able to say "whatever you like" is being questioned more on the basis of responsible communication than from the platform of civil liberty. We should be able to speak freely and openly about anything - but should we do it at the expense of someone's dignity or value as a human being? We seem to be sacrificing meaningful communication for the sake of being able to say what we like.

"BABBLE-ON" PRAYER

I've attended lots of different types of worship and heard all kinds of public prayer over the course of my spiritual journey. Everything from the chanted "mantras" of Hinduism and Buddhism, the "gathered" silence of Quaker contemplation, to the liturgical chanted prayers of Eastern Orthodoxy, and I have to say that Evangelical Christians can learn a lot from studying the different kinds of prayer practices that have come through the various traditions.

As an Evangelical Protestant Christian I can remember being taught, and believing, that formal written prayers were a hindrance to the "free reign" of the Spirit. I believed that prayers should always be from the heart and not the mind. However, in practice, what I observed in public prayer, both by myself and others, is that when left to using my own words, my prayers became either "preachy" (i.e. Loaded with messages about what I wanted others to think or do) or rather vain and repetitious.

THE "JUST" WORD

Here's a sample of typical "spontaneous" public prayer that I confess to having prayed and heard way too often:

"Lord I just wanna thank You for all that You've done for me (us), and ask that You just bless all that I (we) do. Change my(our) mind(s) Lord. Just make me (us) more like You want me (us) to be. Just fill me(us) with Your Spirit, that You would just have first place in my(our) lives Lord. I (we) just ask this in Your name. Amen."

Now at first glance this sounds pretty spiritual and so sincere. However, when I hear this kind of prayer I can't help but notice how many times the word "I" or "We" is used, and more troubling is the use of the word "Just." Let me graphically illustrate what I mean...here's the same prayer with highlighting.

"Lord I just wanna thank You for all that You've done for me (us), and ask that You just bless all that I (we) do. Change my(our) mind(s) Lord. Just make me (us) more like You want me (us) to be. Just fill me(us) with Your Spirit, that You would just have first place in my(our) live(s) Lord. I (we) just ask this in Your name. Amen."

I can't help feeling that despite all of its well-intended sentiment - that this prayer is pretty empty of real meaning - "Just" is a very minimizing or tentative word. Also, the use of "I" and "We" emphasizes that the prayer is REALLY all about me (or us) and not so much about God. I think that when Jesus urged that we not practice "vain repetition," this is what He was referring to - the emphasis being more on the "Vain" - as in empty or meaningless, than on the "repetition."

PRAYER OF THE MIND IN THE HEART

When the disciples of Jesus gathered around Him they couldn't help notice that Jesus' method of prayer was different from that which they had observed and been taught by others. Jesus demonstrated prayer much more than He taught on it - but when He did discuss it - here's some of what He said.

"When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men..... But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words." Matthew 6:5-8

And He said to them, "When you pray, say:

'Father, hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
'Give us each day our daily bread.
'And forgive us our sins,
For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.' "- Luke 11:2-4

THE MODEL PRAYER

What has been called the "Lord's Prayer" is both a prayer to be recited AND a model for meaningful prayer. When we communicate with God it only seems right that we should take care in expressing our deepest heartfelt thoughts - God already knows them anyway. Prayer is more for our benefit than God's. Prayer is more about agreeing with God than it is about changing God's mind. Change does occur through prayer, but I believe it is more a result of the expanded awareness of our own inability to understand all that is really unfolding in a particular situation, as we humble ourselves before God.

When I speak to someone that I love and respect I try to make a point not to "just" talk to them. How much more should I try to do this when I'm speaking with God?

My all time favorite quote on the subject of prayer comes from St. Theophan the Recluse:

"Stand with reverence before God, with the mind in the heart, and strive toward Him with longing" - from the Letters of St. Theophan the Recluse

Here are some links to some excellent resources on the subject of prayer -

Websites:

On Orthodox Prayer (including the Jesus Prayer)

Scot McKnight's "Jesus Creed" Blog - that has some excellent links to "Praying with the Church"

BOOKS:

The Art of Prayer - an excellent anthology

Too Busy Not to Pray - a good book on prayer and journaling

JUST ONE MORE THING

Prayer, like any communication, should be simple but not mindless or heartless. JUST DO IT!!