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| Nancy Bates Photography |
Accumulating Moments of Truth
Finding treasures like finding the donkey in the pillowcase. It's a bit like how ideas form in our hearts. We find a bit of truth here and there. Everyday we reach out even further to other bits of truth. Together these moments - these idea of God and life - culminate over time. As this process continues we draw either closer to or farther away from God.
...Or UnTruth
Case in point: I hung out with a friend recently. He's a frIend I've spent a lot of time with in my life. He confessed that he's all but lost his faith. At first, I was surprised. Then he told me of his journey over the past couple of years. I started to make the connection points. I thought of all the conversations we've had over the years. We'd discussed issues like the existence of God, the validity of the role of the Church in the life of the believer, the Bible being the authoritative word of God, the ability for humans to have belief culminating in real moments called "truth". All these were up for debate.
Like Shower Scum
Ideas have been accumulated and swayed over time. Ideas, good and bad, take up residence in repetitive spaces of the heart. Soon the possibility of what isn't accumulates over time to appear as what is, like shower scum on the inside of a porcelain tub. Now he, my friend, no longer believes. This process is more common that one might think. Maybe I'm painting a picture of your life? Maybe I'm painting a picture of someone you know?
Is God Unable?
I was having coffee with another friend this week, whose a worship pastor at another church in town. We talked about prayer. He said, "You know, we pray for God to help people cope with sickness and death, but we rarely pray that God will actually break through heaven and earth to heal someone." He gave this example of praying healing over someone boldly. I think he's right, instead we tend to pray prayers where we admit that God is unable to heal in the moment and we want him to coerce a smile on the person we are praying for as they face whatever it is they are about to face.
This is unfortunate because how we pray reveals the reality of our faith in God.
Christians in Name; Unbelievers in Practice
Prayer leads. How we pray is telling. Are we so one-sided in a pragmatic kind of way that we believe God is unable to act? If you think about it, this is similar to the mindset of a person whose life is lead away from faith in God. We are Christians in name, but unbelievers in practice. We pray like practical atheists. Our shallowness in prayer is one step away from being alienated from God in the things of life that matter most.
Prayer in the Loud Places
Paul talks about prayer in Ephesians 6. He says that to this end (prayer) we are to keep alert. We are to be focused, but actively focused on paying attention to all aspects of what is going on as we pray. What's unique about this is that many prays are offered while we are quietly sitting in our office or quiet time. But what about prayers out in the open places of everyday life. Here is where the battle of our heart's accumulation and formation are loudly requited to God.
"The quest for a contemplative life can actually be self-absorbed, focused on my quiet and me. If we love people and have the power to help, then we are going to be busy. Learning to pray doesn't offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart. In the midst of outer busyness we can develop an inner quiet. Because we are less hectic on the inside, we have a greater capacity to love." A Praying Life, Paul Miller
Who God Is + What He Can Do
If you prayed, right now, out loud, what would it tell us and the world about your relationship with God? Would it show that you are drawing closer to or farther away from Him? Like the grey donkey, head down in somber recognition of who God is and what he is capable of doing.
