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Prayer as a Competitive Sport
Sometimes it is possible to read too many books on one subject. One’s head gets filled with all theory and no practice. I found myself in this position a number of years ago when I had read as many books on prayer as I could get my hands on. I became very sensitive to the various approaches to prayer and observed carefully the people around me as they prayed. Some seemed to be in earnest, actually too earnest, as if trying to prove their sincerity. Others shouted at the devil, and still others read long and eloquent prayers out loud. The cool pastors were all very casual as if talking…
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How Do I Know God Will Listen to Me?
For years I believed that I needed to make God listen to me. We have this unfortunate tendency to overlay the image of our parents onto our beliefs about God. So just like my father, I imagined God as benevolent but distant and preoccupied. But also like my father, once you got His attention, it was a laser focus where you would discover all your previous misconceptions. This was both good and painful. Having a bonafide genius for a father has its benefits and drawbacks. The only fight I remember my parents had on a regular basis was the one where my mother was trying to get him home…
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My First Adventure in Prayer
Nearly twenty years ago, I taught at a very rural high school where I had the leisure of an entire school year to explore my profound inability to discipline tenth graders. The school was so rural that when students heard my California accent, their first question was to ask me if I was from “off”. This referred to anyone that came from outside their county of around six thousand citizens. “Yes,” I assured them, “I am from way “off”. And it was here, at this little country high school that I learned that God answers prayer in crazy ways sometimes. I had a co-worker I will call “Jane” who was…
Healing Through Art & Words
