Prayer Moments

What is Prayer?

Let us pray. With these words we close our eyes, bow our heads, fold our hands together and . . then what?

We wait for the minister to continue speaking. We reach out to still a squiggly child. We start a grocery list in our heads for the quick stop at the convenience store on the way home. We become immersed in thinking about a project at work that has occupied us mentally for most of the weekend. Chances are good that praying privately can find us running the same gamut of interruptions and distractions in our thoughts.

Our culture has decided fairly recently that it is okay to use the word prayer in general conversation. Newscasters, talk show hosts and their guests, television characters mention keeping people in their prayers or praying that a situation will work itself out for everybody's best interests. There is conversation about prayer, and some fictional programs do feature characters who visit the hospital chapel for a private moment with God. But overall, lots of talk, not that much action. It feels as though “We're all praying for you” has replaced “I'll bring over a casserole” as the modern version of comfort language. There's a whole lot less investment. People are pretty clear what it means when the casserole shows up, but are a little less clear when the prayer isn't shared in person, or if it is being offered at all. There's no dish to clean up and return, so where is the real support?

Church, culture, and a word used very easily in conversation, but perhaps not so consciously engaged or understood as a clear, powerful action. We follow the ritual every Sunday and at other points during the week, at vesper services, weddings, Bible studies and fellowship gatherings. We nod at the television screen, pleased that celebrities aren't afraid to at least imply their belief in God. But what are we really saying to ourselves and to each other about our own faith and about this thing called prayer?

First, what is prayer?

The Bible gives various examples of how we should go about praying and presents specific prayers we still use today, including the Magnificat and the Lord's Prayer. But it is the dictionary that gives us a gimpse into our cultural understanding of prayer. The definition of prayer in the Oxford Dictionary includes prayer as a solemn request or thanksgiving to God, or to entreat or beseech, to ask earnestly. It also mentions prayer as a formula or a form of words used while praying, such as the Lord's Prayer. In short, we are asking God for what we want, being polite and expressing our gratitude and sometimes trusting familiar words to carry us through the process. That's what the dictionary reflects of our culture, but is that how you understand prayer in your life? We are all part of our culture, but our experiences may or may not match this definition.

The Interperter's Dictionary of the Bible offers several ideas about prayer that broaden and deepen our understanding of the meaning of prayer itself. This resource points out that the Bible moves the idea of prayer as magic to prayer as spiritual communion with God. It goes on to say that prayer is an identification with God's will and action in the world. And, finally, prayer between us and God is designed to affect the nature and cause of our relationship with God. What is most interesting is that all of this depends on how the nature of God is conceived, and, I would add, perceived.

What is clear about this understanding of prayer is that there is a relational basis, a communion, a journeying together in mutual understanding and purpose, an engagement with God. From Moses, to Mary, to Jesus, to Paul and untold, and unnamed people, before, during and after their lives, it is clear that prayer is about more than words sent out on a brisk wind toward heaven.

How these definitions fit or don't fit your life brings us to the second question of this article. What is prayer to you? Is it a series of requests, expressions of gratitude and the Lord's Prayer at bedtime? Is prayer a series of conversations through the day with God about what is going on in your world and the larger world, leaving some silences for God's input or direction? Perhaps your life, like most people's, is a combination of both. Both definitions begin with the acknowledgment of God and some level of engagement of God's presence in the world. Both are saying that prayer is communication with God. How far they move beyond that point are drastically different, as are the results and meaningfulness in our lives as prayer practitioners.

How we perceive prayer, its importance and viability in our lives, directly depends on how we view God in our lives. Do we value and respect our relationship with God enough to pay attention to it with regular, mutual communication, the kind in which both parties talk and listen to each other? If prayer by definition is communication with God, how we engage in or withdraw from that process speaks volumes about how we perceive our relationship with God and how it impacts our lives. How much do you want God to influence your life? How much do you want to impact your world and the world around you as part of this communication with God?

What is prayer. That question can be answered simply. Prayer is communication with God. What is prayer to you? That is a tougher answer. Only you can determine the level of quality or value of prayer in your own life.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 3:26 PM 0 comments

Jill Carroll

As of this writing, reporter Jill Carroll, kidnapped Saturday morning in Baghdad, is still missing.

There is no word on her whereabouts. No one has claimed responsibility for her abduction, or the murder of her translator, who was found in the same neighborhood from which she disappeared. Although shot twice in the head, he lived long enough to tell authorities that Carroll was to interview Adham al-Duraimi, a leading Arab Sunni politician at ten that morning. After a twenty-five minute wait, they were informed al-Duraimi was not in his office. The ambush occurred three hundred yards from the building in which al-Duraimi's office is located. Carroll's driver, pushed from the car before he could put the vehicle into neutral, believes the attack was orchestrated because it took less than a quarter minute to accomplish. Carroll, with people crushed in around her in the back seat, was sped away. Despite the escalating violence in an unstable country, and that this latest kidnapping of a Westerner occurred in one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods, the fact remains that each person killed or injured or kidnapped as a result of United States or Iraqi political agendas, is an individual, someone with friends, family, and a God who loves them.

Jill Carroll is no exception.

When Carroll was laid off from her job as a reporting assistant for The Wall Street Journal several years ago, she decided to pursue her dream. "All I ever wanted to be was a foreign correspondent," she wrote in the February/March 2005 edition of the American Journalism Review. "It seemed the right time to try to make it happen." Jill moved to Jordan six months prior to the beginning of the Iraqi War to learn as much as possible before the fighting began. A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, she had been working as a journalist for three years, and at the time of her abduction was reporting for The Christian Science Monitor. She has also posted stories with other U.S. publications and an Italian wire service, and has been interviewed by National Public Radio. Carroll was an aggressive reporter, but was careful, Monitory Managing editor Marshall Ingwerson said. "She's a very professional, straight-up, fact-oriented reporter." Ingwerson said. Richard Bergenheim, also of The Monitor, is quoted as saying,"Jill's ability to help others understand the issues facing all groups in Iraq has been invaluable." Her sister, Kathryn, would agree, having hosted a blog keeping friends and family aware of Jill's work since being in the Middle East. The blog has been pulled since Jill's abduction.

Knowing the risks doesn't always prevent the worst from happening. Jill Carroll had choices in her life, she made them to the best of her ability, and has become a victim of the war she has been clarifying for us here in the United States. What Jill saw was an opportunity to understand this international tragedy from the perspective of the Iraqi people, these victims who had no choice but to try to hone their survival instincts in a home lost to terrorism. There is grace in what Jill Carroll's life choices have meant to the Iraqi people as she has told their stories. We pray tonight for her safe return so that we may continue to be blessed by her gifts and her courage.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 7:42 PM 0 comments

When Do You Pray?

When do you pray?

Prayer is the cornerstone of the Christian faith, the communication factor with God that opens us to grace, hope and the very love of God that transforms our lives.

So, when do you pray? Think about that for a moment. Think about when you pray before you start reciting the endless list in your head about why you don't have the time to pray that you think you should, would or could, if only. Take a deep breath, and ponder this for a moment.

Did you pray at church this week? Did you say grace with your meals today, spoken or unspoken? Did you make a green light, thereby getting to work in plenty of time, and say, “Thank you, God”? Did you admire the clouds in the sky while running an errand before you picked your kids up from school? Prayer happens throughout your day, in ways that are obvious, and many that are not so apparent.

A prayer for God's help and guidance nudged between two thoughts about when to pay bills and still produce what is required at work, or a bit of extra patience listening to a friend, can both be strong prayers in simple, profound ways.

Our hopes and dreams are also prayers. Albeit not always spoken, our thoughts convey our desires to God and are as viable as the prayers in which we share at each Sunday worship service. Hebrews 11:1 states: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” In our hopes, we communicate our faith in God, to God.

Prayer communicates to God all that we want to share with God. Praise, adoration, gratitude, hope, fear, trust, petitions, anything we want to share with God, and particularly those things we may not be able to share with anyone else are there for the giving. God listens, and God hears.

Take a moment, a pen and a piece of paper, and jot down when you prayed today, and what you prayed about and for. No judgments, just a consideration of your communication with God today.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 1:13 PM 0 comments

Private, Prayerful Moments

Two recent events in our country make me shake my head, and wonder, about the value we place on privacy and communication in our culture.

First, we have the admission by the Bush administration that our phone conversations and emails are open territory for government surveillance. Apparently our willingness to allow our luggage to be available for search and seizure without cause, whenever we travel in our own country, gave our highest elected official a clear conscience to authorize the further movement into the private moments of our lives. Whether or not you believe national security is at stake without these activities, the general consensus is that we don't really like the government intruding on our personal communications. Perhaps our fourth amendment rights have gone the way of an expired gift card: pretty to look at, but no longer redeemable.

Second, twelve men died in a West Virginia mine this week, and the media has offered up the men's last notes to their families as a tribute to their lives, and the relative ease with which they died. Why do we feel it is appropriate, even poignant, in the middle of this tragic situation, to think that we have any right to these last communications among family members? As we end this first week in the new year, I am fairly certain that the only intimate communications protected from our government, the media, and our neighbors' curiosity, are those in prayer with God.

Even though Jesus lived an extraordinarily public life, even by today's standards, He was also keenly aware of the human need for privacy. Although his public ministry is recorded as lasting only about three years, the intensity of those three years is documented in dramatic fashion. Preaching and teaching, healing the multitudes, recruiting and training the disciples, traveling between towns on foot or by pack animal, and partaking of countless business dinners with the likes of tax collectors and prostitutes. Even when Jesus thought he could have a few moments to himself, he frequently was trailed by crowds of people who would not leave him alone. Jesus, having no physical home of his own, also often relied on the hospitality of others for food and lodging. Wonderful as it is to be lovingly welcomed into another's house, Dorothy was right: there is no place like home. Not possessing that simple pleasure, Jesus appears to have sought his privacy in secluded outdoor areas, and in his prayer life. The gospels contain many indications that Jesus encouraged his disciples to seek quiet times and places for themselves as well.

Unlike much of the religious leadership of Jesus' time, Jesus taught that prayer was a private matter, between the individual and God. "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you (Matthew 6:6)." Although Jesus' teaching has been understood to promote modesty and decorum in communication with God, also evident is an element of relational intimacy, like that between a parent and child. If you grew up in a family with brothers and sisters, you know how important one-on-one conversations with your mother and father were. The last thing you wanted was for a sibling to overhear something personal, meant only for your dad or mom's ear. What Jesus told the crowds that day, and what he is telling us now, is that we are best able to communicate with God in this personal way. While we are able to express ourselves, and our faith, without an audience full of opinions, we are also able to hear God more easily, more fully, and understand God's purposes, when we don't have people around us, eager and ready to speak on God's behalf. The integrity, clarity, and intimacy of our relationship with God is maintained and deepened when we protect the privacy of its communications.

By extension, our relationships with family and friends, true gifts from a loving, attentive, and caring God, deserve this same courtesy and consideration. Perhaps President Bush, in his own prayers tonight, will have a moment of privacy with God to discuss the matter. But that is between him and God.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 7:20 PM 0 comments

How to Enrich Your Prayer Life in Three Easy Steps

It's 10:30 am. I am standing at my job, having made it out of the house on time, maneuvered traffic successfully and found a fabulous parking space of which every person alive should be envious. I am afforded the luxury of a great view, and I am looking forward to a relatively peaceful day. Days such as these offer me time to consider life as a whole, and the components that contribute to that whole.

As a person of faith, I consider prayer to be one of those important components. I start my day with coffee and a devotional time that includes scriptures, prayer and journaling. The routine is companionable. Whatever else happens I have acknowledged God as a part of the day. I have honored the meaning of the words on the bronze plaque that hangs behind me on my kitchen wall: Bidden or not bidden God is present. Occasionally throughout the day I remember the gratitude I feel for my life and I thank God, or I chat with a friend who is in the muddle of a personal transition and I ask God to be present in a specific way with them. By the end of the day, God and I have shared a few moments on the run, but nothing like the time I would give a cherished friend.

Considering everything, I would like to spend more conscious time with God. And, considering everything, I need to ask myself what keeps me from following through on this desire. What keeps me from choosing this deeper communication with God in a way that makes sense in my life? Three reasons come to mind: time constraints, figuring out what shape I want this prayer communication to take and being honest with myself about why I want to connect with God more fully. If I am going to pursue this new project, what do I want to gain from the effort? From these reasons come three questions to answer for myself: When will I create this time with God to pray? How will I format this prayer time? And, why do I want to pray more?

Almost all of my friends are busy people with whom I quite literally have to set appointments to have consistent contact. It's not a bad arrangement, particularly with those who live out of town. We keep up with each others' lives, we are privy to the special details that create warm memories with which to play with one another for years to come. We are also more comfortable with the silences that weave themselves through the years, born of struggles or sorrows. Appointments are simple structures that liberate us from the fears of disassociation or loss that can so easily happen over time if relationships born of choice are not tended regularly.

I have come to the conclusion that as friendships must be framed in intentionality to be maintained and nurtured, so must my prayer life be with God. God isn't a long distance companion, but it's still nice to treat time with God with the same level of respect and delight that I treat phone conversations and visits with friends.

So, when will I pray? When will I set my appointments with God for regular visits? As busy as I am I know that I can consciously choose a specific time or times throughout the day to make time for prayer. I don't pretend that I can get up fifteen minutes earlier, but I can stay up fifteen minutes later. I also don't have to watch the “Frasierr” rerun every day at 5:30 PM. I could also spend my lunch hour with God, or at least part of it. God truly does know how much I love to have lunch with a good friend. I can make a choice to consider times I have already filled with other tasks or events and see how important they really are to me, compared with spending time with God in planned communication. Making a list of these appointments will help me know just how much time I intend to invest in continuing to develop my connection with God. I plan to continue the habit of two or three sentence “mini prayers” with God because nothing can replace those moments. But I also intend to carve out space, be it five, ten or thirty minutes a day to plan a conversation with God.

How do I plan a prayer visit with God? It feels as though format should be a big deal, and probably an equally large stumbling block to the whole process. But I suspect that God really isn't as adverse to lists and organization as we may have told ourselves. All the evidence in Genesis and nature points to God creating order out of chaos, and in what may have been record time, considering the detail work involved. My point is that making a plan ahead of the planned visit is just as liberating as planning the visit itself. The devotional time I mentioned earlier has been a planned part of my daily life for years, and I have missed this pleasure on very rare occasions over the years. It isn't everybody's plan, but it works for me because I chose it, and I continue to choose to make the appointment every day.

The same can be said for anything new in my schedule. If I choose the time, then map out with a list or some notes what I want to cover, it makes the meeting more tangible, and more likely I will follow through and show up. Not showing up by letting something else distract me doesn't work as easily when I've already planned to discuss my work, a relationship, a fear or a hope with God. God is always ready and willing, but I will be shortchanging myself if I am not completing my prep work and arriving on time.

The last question is general, but very pointed if taken seriously: Why do I want to pray more? It is as simply answered as desiring to spend more time with God, beyond the belief that God is always hanging around anyway. God is always present, bidden or not bidden, but am I? My grandmother, who died before I was born, left a simple legacy in these words: Whether you know it or not, you live by what you believe. I am also reminded of a “Will and Grace” episode in which Grace is terrified she and Will might drift apart because there are no legal contracts or cultural conventions to hold them together. Will, sitting at the piano, starts to sing the old Captain and Tenillle hit, “Love Will Keep Us Together.”

And there is the truth of the matter. I would like the relationship God has promised to me to continue to deepen and become more creative and alive. I would like how I live to reflect my belief in God as a loving Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. I would like those around me to recognize that I welcome God into my life, that how I talk about God reflects that I actually talk with God. I'd like not to be seen as name dropper as much as a person who enjoys sharing stories about a trusted friend. I want to do my part to express the belief that I love God, as well as believing that God loves me.

There are probably many reasons you have not chosen to make time for a broader prayer time in you life. I know for myself that i have used time constraints, figuring out what to say or how to say it, and my personal motivations at any given time in my life as reasons not to create more planned prayer time with God. If you are at a point in your life at which you would like to reshape your communication with God I invite you to ponder these questions as I have: When will you make time for intentional prayer? How will you format that time? Why do I want to pray now? What is the goal I envision as I plan to communicate more regularly, more fully with God?

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 6:38 PM 0 comments