Prayer

I thought it apt, to continue where I last left off in the previous post to invest more time in the study of that which mattered in the grander scheme of things. A lot of people ask these days, about Prayer, and if it really worked, or if it mattered at all? It was thus timely, that the answer came, for me at least, in the following passage taken from Yancey's recent book Prayer - Does it Make A Difference (Zondervan, 2006). Harold writes on pp. 83:

"For me, prayer is the key to making life an adventure. In the Lord of the Rings series by Tolkien, poor Frodo only gets enough direction for the next lap of the journey. As he looks back, it all works out, but most of the time he wanders around confused and helpless. Only occasionally, and in subtle ways does Gandalf actively give assistance and guidance.
Like Frodo, we live ina world of opposition, one saturated with sex and full of evil, violence and poverty. This is my Father's world? I come to God with my complaints and laments. I grapple with God, call him to account. And I believe God welcomes that dialogue. In the process, I learn who I am. Someone asked the Swiss counselor Paul Tournier, "What's your definition of a hypocrite?" and he replied, C'est moi - It is I. Prayer reminds me of that truth.
Prayer also straightens out my expectations. My son, small for his age loves to play football. He practices faithfully, slogging through the mud, and during games, he expects to get smashed by defensive players who outweigh him by a hundred pounds. He sees football as a kind of battle, and naturally it will include pain and conflict. I see the Christian's life on this planet as a battle, too. We try to follow God on a place in active rebellion against him. I don't expect prayer to make that any easier, any less problem-filled. I do expect it to give me the inner strength to keep fighting. Persistence is my way of demonstrating faith."

Yancey writes:
"If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. I have now written twenty books, and in some way of other most of them circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those two themes converge."

As I work my way through the book, it's becoming increasingly absorbing as it begins to reveal passages in Scripture that are jumping out at me in ways in which I hadn't perceived them before. And to think that I dared thing that life on this Island was getting a tad bit...well, I did suppose I was getting a little ahead of myself...

Brand New Year

I'd wanted something meaningful to kick off the new year, not a resolution of sorts, nor new purchases, but something of a more lasting kind. 2007 was a year of being still, learning (not that it has stopped) and tons of reading - a retreat of sorts, and stock taking of many key aspects in life. But some of the most meaningful moments, were times spent in conversation with friends and family,the solitude of mornings in the city (whilst the world chugged on), watching traffic (people and vehicular) go by, within the safe haven of a muted Cafe, behind its massive giant glass walls. Donald Miller sums up pretty well the way I'd like to head into 2008. Quoting him in verbatim:

"I found myself reflecting on that hope, the hope we have in Christ, and I realized some of the greatest times in my life are times when I have had hope in something. If I were studying hard, I hoped in spring break, and if I was lonely, then I hoped in a new relationship that was blossoming. I have placed hope in a movie that would be coming out, in a sporting event of which I followed a team (Go Patriots) and some of those things worked out and some of them didn’t. But as great as spring break or a new relationship turned out to be, I think I have to admit the hope was even better. Reality can be a let down, as Solomon would say.

What I think is so remarkable about the hope we have in Christ is that this specific hope is promised to not let us down. God will come through even as He has promised He would come through. His hope will not disappoint, like so many other targets of false hope. And what is also interesting is that in light of the hope we have in Christ, all other things take their proper places, and we can see more clearly what they actually are, love for love’s sake, entertainment for entertainment sake, success in projects as fun and exciting, but nothing of eternal significance. Eternal hope for fulfillment is not in those things, it is in Christ alone. That perspective seems like it holds a lot of freedom."

There's a lot of wisdom in that which Miller expresses, and even more from where he draws his inspiration. Surely, such treasure merits a more judicious and deliberate investment of time in its study. Welcome to 2008 folks. It'll be an exciting year.