Romance With God
A sentence or two about prayer…
On a recent weekend in Ramsey, Minnesota, I had a chance to hear a series
of lectures that I had heard before. The lectures were by Juan Carlos Ortiz,
a world-renowned pastor, evangelist and Bible teacher. He was talking about
prayer, and though I don't pretend to be able to reflect all of his ideas adequately,
a couple of insights did manage to find their way through my head. And I discovered
that Dr. Ortiz has had some of the same frustrations that I have about prayer.
Religious folk often seem to come to the Creator with a list of requests:
God, bless so-and-so, help my sick mother, give me this new job, bless our political
leaders, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Here are a couple of Juan Carlos'
insights:
One, why is it that prayer meetings are the least attended in all of the church?
Is it because we have the wrong idea about prayer? Is it because, instead of
a list of requests that we present and then close the door, prayer might perhaps
be better thought of as a romance, a conversation, a coming-to-know, a sitting
down face to face, a luxuriating in the presence of the beloved? Perhaps if
prayer were primarily a time of gratitude and - dare I say it? - romance, it
might be more interesting. Maybe the requests, then, would be different.
Second, Juan Carlos is convinced that most of the "stuff" we ask for in prayer
is "stuff" we don't need to pray about. The Creator gave us brains, intelligence,
creativity, hands to work, feet to run, a body that can do amazing things, will
power and compassion. Perhaps, rather than asking the Creator, or the Beloved,
to bless Aunt Mary, we need to say, "Oh, Beloved, what is it that I can
do for Aunt Mary, to be a blessing?"
If we are, as Christians are fond of saying, the body of Christ, and as other
religions assert, those who do the will and work of the Creator, then perhaps
the process of prayer ought to be more about seeking ways in which we
can be engaged in doing that work.
I could ramble on for quite a while about the things I learned from Dr. Ortiz,
but the most significant learning was this: prayer is a romance. I like that.
KPM/March 2001
