Prayer? Prayer. Prayer! Prayer...

It is so intriguing to me to appreciate the way that the spiritual disciplines find themselves defined in the lives of different Christians. Coming from a free-church tradition, I had never been accustomed to observing the Christian calendar. And the more I think about it, I think that is an absolute shame. I feel as though I really missed out.

This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. It began the period of Lent. So a small Bible study group of which I am a part got together and we decided to observe Lent. We each made a commitment to alter our lifestyles for the next 40 days. Some of us decided to give something up. Some of us decided to add something. Some of us both.

And I found it interesting that almost everyone in our group felt the need to pray more for the Lenten period. From the outside looking in, the people in that group are some of the best of the best. That group is made up of bright and committed theology students from Churches of Christ and Christian Churches. If anyone our age should have good prayer lives, it should be us. But almost all of us feel as though we are weak in that area. Almost all of us feel as though the spiritual disciplines are one of the first things to go in our lives when we go through just about any situation.

I just don’t get that. I mean, why is it that we find it so difficult to pray sometimes? Is it simply because we cannot hear an audible response? That seems a bit simplistic considering this group devotes a great deal of time studying and meditating on that which is not seen and heard.

I think that part of it has to do with the fact that we are so busy that it is really hard to get quiet and actually do meaningful reflection. So, in turn, we don’t pray. We just don’t.

Are we the only ones going through that? I don’t think so. I feel as though we really only represent the issues that are hitting our generation. But is it just our generation?

So what is the solution? I truthfully don’t know. Because I don’t want to just say that we should pray more, because I am not so sure that we are even praying in a way that does any good even when we pray. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

I mean, here is how the overwhelming majority of my prayers have looked in my life:

God, I just want to thank you for this day and all your many blessings. I want to thank you for working in my life and blessing me so much. I pray that you would bless me right now as I am really stressed out and I pray you would help me to trust you more. Bless my family and my friends. And God I just pray that you would help us all to be better. Guide me, father. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Multiply that length x5 and you have a pretty good idea how most people I know pray. Now I am not saying that they’re (we’re) doing something wrong here, but I think that it is pretty obvious that the above prayer is shallow. Or is it?

Even if it does do some good to pray like that, I am sick of it. I mean, sorry, but it is true. First off, some days I simply do not feel blessed or that my life has been worked in. Just being honest, there are a lot of days that I do not feel like saying “thank you.” I feel like I have been abandoned. But if you read the psalms you’ll see that I am not alone in that!

What I am saying is that there is very little honesty in that prayer. There is only stock formula. And I am beginning to see that it is almost not even worth it to repeat those words if all they are is words.

So the next logical question would be, How do you pray? Like the psalms? If that is true then we’d better start really getting upset with God and asking tough questions. Do we pray contemplatively? Then we better quit saying so much, and when we do we should make it mean something. And then there is the immediate danger of falling asleep. No, seriously…there is.

Should we pray more in community? Obviously I think so. But we are going to have to seriously re-evaluate our stance on prayer if we do that. I mean, how often do we pray for/with one another as church families? Even in small group settings, I feel as though we have greatly missed the goal here. Obviously there are exceptions to this, but not many if there are.

And what about mixed-gender prayer? How often do women pray in the presence of men, either in church or in private settings? Not much in Churches of Christ. It is time for the female voice to be heard in prayer in our fellowship.

And I even question the very nature of prayer. I mean, are we supposed to pray for our sake or for God’s sake? I think that obviously it serves us both, but I am struggling to really understand it. Obviously God knows what we need before we mention it, so what is the point of mentioning it at all? It is simply to get it off our minds? Is the very act of praying supposed to enable God it act? Or does it do nothing but get out in the open what we all know is there anyway? All of the above?

As you can see, I am not trying to offer solutions. Merely thoughts. Got any?