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Cultivating the well-worn path of Prayer
Assorted scripture on prayer (see attached)*
January 16, 2010

A week ago, Saturday afternoon, while I was working on my meditation for Sunday, my sister, Carol, who lives in Tucson texted me. She said, "I am sure you have heard by now what has happened. Pray for our community." I promptly texted her back, "No, I have not heard. What happened?" She then informed me of the tragic incident that took place at the Safeway a half a mile from their home and even closer to Northwest Bible Church where her husband pastors. My sister's first response to this horrific tragedy was, "Pray for our community."

The past few weeks we have been reflecting on what is saving our lives in our present circumstances and trying to articulate that which grounds us as we look ahead to the New Year.

Part of what has been helpful in identifying what is currently saving my life has been to look back on what has grounded me in the past and for the way I have grown to trust more deeply in the One who holds me securely through thick and thin.

I reflected back to nearly ten years ago to the devastation of 9/11, when we as Americans witnessed a terrorist attack on our own soil that shook the entire country to its core. It was at that time that several of you started coming to Friends. I remember how folks just needed a place to process what had happened. For a number of weeks we gathered on Wednesday evenings for a candlelight prayer service. I remember the solace that was for many of us.

I have reflected on the way that prayer has sustained my children and I these past few years as we have faced the adjustments that come when a family is torn apart by divorce.
I have reflected on the lifeline that prayer has been for me as I pastor this little Quaker meeting. Prayer has become a well-worn path on my journey and has grounded me in ways too numerous to count.

I invite us to contemplate together what prayer means to each one of us.

I hope to hear from some of you in our listening and response time in a few moments but first let me share some of what I am learning about prayer. My thoughts find their inspiration and direction from the scriptures we read together as well as my own life experience. Perhaps some of your experiences of prayer will resonate with mine.

I often think of what Anne Lamont wrote of prayer in one of her books. She says there are basically two prayers she prays: "Help me, help me, help me!" and "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I kind of like that. It dispels the need for flowery words and reminds me to be humble and authentic in my approach.

Prayer grounds me in ways that I am aware of and perhaps ways in which I am not fully aware of. . .I have an ever-growing confidence that God's presence is closer to me than my next breath so it doesn't matter if I pray aloud or deep within my spirit, God knows what is in my heart. The words are not as important as the intention and sincerity behind them.

If I could sort out the different ways in which I pray I think I would express it in three ways: A prayer of lament, a prayer of faith, and a prayer of praise.

First, the prayer of lament. This is a form of praying that has become more familiar to me in recent years. It is that deep instinctual cry of my heart that mourns the brokenness of our world and the ways in which people abuse their God-given freedom to harm themselves and others. It is the cosmic sadness I feel when I see the ways in which people suffer from oppression, hunger and poverty. It is the way that my heart breaks when I observe war torn countries and the continued use of violence to try to solve the world's problems. It is the unease within my spirit for the ways in which people are hated and marginalized in our culture here and around the world. And then it is handing this grief and sadness over to a God who is far wiser, loving, and compassionate than I will ever be.

Also included within my prayers of lament is the realization of my own brokenness, my prayers of confession for ways in which I grieve God's heart by my attitudes, actions, or apathy. For me, lament is about laying it out there with honesty and openness and just letting it be there exposed in all of its mess.

The next kind of prayer that grounds my life is a prayer of faith. As the years pass I am learning to more readily place my trust in the love, grace and wisdom of God. The prayer for insight, clarity and guidance has become a way of life for me. This involves surrendering those I care about to God, knowing I can't change or fix them so I simply hold them in the LIGHT of an all-wise loving God.

My prayer of faith says, "Change MY heart. Cultivate within me your character, your perspective, your tenderness as I do the work that you have called me to." It is the prayer that holds all outcomes lightly banking on the fact that God might give me some new information as I just keep trusting and waiting and hoping. It is the prayer that believes that God can redeem any ugly situation, no matter how terrible it is, and create new life and possibility.

Also included in this prayer of faith is listening more and talking less. It is the growing comfort I have in the silence where I can hear God speak into my life truth I need for the journey.

And lastly, a form of prayer that grounds me is a prayer of praise. It is the gratitude I feel when I experience the grace of God, when I am changed, transformed in ways that I never thought possible. It is my "thank you" to answers to prayers I have prayed for people I love over the years, or the appreciation for the beauty that surrounds me.

Unfortunately, it is the prayer I forget to pray most often, but when I do it changes the landscape of my life, transforms my perspective, and fills me with joy beyond words.
Prayer has grounded me for my entire life, it is saving my life right now and I know it will continue to ground me as I look ahead to the New Year.

As we move into our time of listening and response, consider what prayer means to you. What value does it hold in your experience? How would you describe prayer to someone who has just started praying? What can you say about prayer?

* Scriptures for Cultivating the Habit of Prayer