On the Road to Emmaus » C.S. Lewis

A Life Poured Out in Love is the Starting Point of All True Christianity (Principles and Practices for the Spiritual Life, Part 1a)

Richard — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 01:50:51 +0000

This is the beginning of a series in which I hope to distill a synthesis of my learning and experience with respect to the manner in which one cultivates a deep spiritual life. My intention is to combine both an understanding of how the spiritual life works along with what practically to do to experience growth. I find much spiritual counsel to have either a plethora of helpful principles, yet without clear guidance on how specifically to implement them; or lists of spiritual disciplines without a grounding base explaining their significance in the larger vision of the spiritual life (Dallas Willard’s Spirit of the Disciplines is a stellar exception). Here I will attempt to do both. In such I have isolated eight principles, which, in my gleaning from the Scriptures, from spiritual masters both ancient and modern, as well as from my experience, personally and alongside others, are central to a flourishing spiritual life. Each principle will be expressed both positively and negatively, briefly explained, and then followed by corresponding practices to specifically implement them in daily life. I will grant from the beginning there is much more that possibly could be said beyond what I will say with numerous additional principles, practices, qualifications, modifications and so forth. Granting the limited nature of my experience, understanding and articulation, I hope and pray these writings will bear fruit in your life.

Without further ado, the first principle is thus:

A life poured out in love is the starting point of all true Christianity, the source and summit of all true humanity.

A life lived for one’s self or within which self-giving remains ancillary is the sure path to de-humanizing futility. God does not recognize this as Christianity regardless of a superabundance of Christian jargon, activities, ideas, etc.

In Matthew 22, an expert in the Jewish law asks Jesus which commandment in the law is the greatest. In today’s religious consciousness, the word “law” commonly conjures up various images of abject servitude, detached submission, despondent acquiescence or rigid legalism. When God says to do something you must do it, yet all the while, bitterly wishing there was an escape hatch through which you could return to a life of free self-determination. Yet the biblical concept of “law” is different. The word “torah” (Hebrew for “law”) is the noun form of a word which means “to throw or shoot,” usually with arrows. Some scholars suggest that meaning behind “torah” is in the aiming of an arrow or the pointing of a finger to direct such a shot. Hence “torah” means something like “guidance” or “direction.” This meaning fits well with the actual content of the “torah,” the first five books of the bible, since most of it is not lists of rules, but stories about God and his people. Remarkably so, the massive amount of material from Genesis 12 through the end of Deuteronomy all have a coherent theme: In a world where humans have unequivocally wrought disaster through their fighting, hatred, abuse and violence (see Gen. 3-11), God graciously initiates a promise of blessing to Abraham and his descendants, which both re-affirms God’s initial intentions for humanity (Gen. 1-2) and seeks to restore them. This promise, partially fulfilled in the stories recounted, remains the outstanding invitation to God’s people to be his answer to creation’s dilemma, and the agents through whom the solution comes (see David Clines fascinating book The Theme of the Pentateuch for a fuller exposition). The “torah,” then is God’s guidance on how, in the midst of a world of corruption and violence, to become a people through whom the earth’s desolate state can be mended and healed rather than further destroyed. By directing us to be participants in this grand story, we can be people who help the problem rather than continue to break lives, relationships and communities.

While I don’t imagine for a moment this was what the law expert was asking about in Matthew 22, I have more than a sneaking suspicion this is what Jesus chose to answer to anyway. In response to what the greatest commandment is, Jesus, in his typical terse yet far-reaching manner answers, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” The questioner asked concerning commandments in the law and Jesus responds with an answer which summarizes “all the law and the prophets.” This phrase, “law and prophets,” was a shorthand way of referring to the entire corpus of Jewish Scriptures. It seems as though Jesus is answering a bigger issue than which of the rules is most important, as if you only had one command to keep, which one would it be. Instead, Jesus is speaking to the foundational concept of the totality of Jewish Scripture. He addresses the entire unfolding narration of Israel’s history with God. In this history, God invited Israel to be the people who embody the true humanity before a world which had continually defaced nearly every trace of human semblance through its violence, ambition, hatred and greed. They would be God’s solution to the problem of sin and the agents through whom all nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3), a blessing which would prevail over the curse of sin and death (Gen. 3:15-19). Notice that Jesus does not replace the “law and prophets” with an abstract principle of “love,” as if, whenever one has subjective experiences which one might call love, then everything else in the Hebrew Scriptures doesn’t really matter. Rather, the “law and prophets,” this whole story of promise, blessing, invitation, failure and restoration can be summed up as love. The way the people of God are to be the model of true humanity and a restorative presence on earth is through a love with the whole heart, the whole soul, and the whole mind. Namely, God invites his people to be truly human, to be the restored new humanity, and participate in creation’s restoration first and foremost by loving God and neighbor with all of one’s being (heart, soul, and mind) and will the fullest’ of one’s capacity (the whole heart, the whole soul and the whole mind).

“It is the whole of Christianity,” C.S. Lewis remarks in Mere Christianity, “Christianity offers nothing else at all.” Everything we can say about Christianity begins with the notion of the whole and unreserved giving of oneself in love for God and for others. What is commonly represented as a high level of achievement, a point to which one gradually works towards in one’s Christian journey, because so lofty an idea it is relegated to theoretical endeavors for super-saints which are never really attempted. It is in actual fact the only starting point. The self-giving love of this Great Commandment is not what we relegate to the mature while we formulate a more accessible modality for the rest of us novices (after all, who is mature anyway we might retort?) where we can do some spiritual things but mostly live for ourselves. Rather, to miss this one thing is to miss the entire point. If everything else hangs on the call for an entire outpouring of love, then without it, everything falls to the ground in a tangled mess. Of course, I am not meaning that perfect attainment of love in full maturity is where one must start as a Christian. Nevertheless, a radical renunciation of self-absorption, self-promotion and self-protection coupled to the risky self-surrender which endeavors to love with all of one’s self, must be utterly foundational. By this I mean the central organizing principle of how time, money, resources, energy, emotions, relations, etc are used must be whole and unreserved self-giving love, otherwise we are failing to follow the most basic guidance about what it means to be God’s people and what it means to be human. We were made in love, we were made for love and we were made to love. God invites us to be his redeemed and restored people in the world, those in whom the restoration of true humanity is beginning to flower, and through whom the abundance of his love can flow towards the restoration of a fragmented and broken world. A life poured out in love is the starting point of all true Christianity, the source and summit of all true humanity.

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Fifth Sunday in Lent from The Book of Common Prayer)

Why Use Written Prayers? (A series explaining the logic and reasons behind Christian liturgy and worship)

Richard — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:11:03 +0000

Among Evangelical and Charismatic Christians, reactions to liturgical aspects of worship and prayer vary greatly from intrigue, to delight, to bewilderment, to straight up scoffing. This series will attempt to explain some of the reasons behind liturgical prayer aimed at people with little or no (positive) experience with it, though ideally it will also be an encouragement to those already versed in such tradition. I will give lists of reasons for various aspects with (hopefully) brief explanations. Today we’ll look at written prayers, pre-written prayers that is. Many people have a hard time seeing why someone would ever want to repeat pre-written prayers as a part or even a significant part of one’s devotional life. Here’s a few thoughts, though by no means exhaustive:

1) They teach us how to pray – most people learned to write by copying letters printed in a book, or even tracing over them. We learned math by repeating “times tables” over and over until they were automatic. Using written prayers works in the same way. We “trace over” the prayers of the Saints, and over time, they become a part of us.

2) They “prime the pump” – written prayers solve the dilemma of what to say while praying. Instead staring off into space or daydreaming during our prayer time, we can “prime the pump” using written prayers to get us started.

3) They remind us what “we ought to pray” – when left to our own devices we could easily pray only for that which immediately concerns us, kind of like a “tyranny of the urgent,” only in prayer. As C.S. Lewis says, “The crisis of the present moment will always loom largest. Isn’t there a danger that our great, permanent, objective necessities—often more important—may get crowded out?”

4) They infuse our prayer life with rich biblical and theological content – My own spontaneous prayer can only possibly be filled with whatever biblical content I have in retrievable memory and am able to string together into coherent sentences on the fly. On my own, lets count on that being rather limited and as C.S. Lewis remarked, in danger of quickly dispersing into “wide and shallow puddles.” Written prayers make instantly accessible a rich depth of content in prayer without requiring the least bit of ingenuity on my part.

5) They connect us to the wider church, both geographically and historically – I can pray in unity with believers all over the world and throughout history by praying the same words with them.

6) They are time-tested – of course not all are, but many written prayers in historic liturgies are over a thousand years old. These have stuck around for reasons that are well worth exploring.

7) They are short and stay focused – this helps people engage with them over against the rambling or “stream-of-consciousness” praying that so often occurs when one person prays for a long time. So many topics are covered in no organized or coherent fashion that it is nearly impossible to stay connected. The other people attempting to pray often zone out because they can’t keep track of what is going on. Written prayers are shorter and to the point. They are unified around a coherent theme and with a specific objective. This helps either an individual or a group connect and agree with them.

8 ) They spare us from narcissism (i.e., idolatrous idiosyncrasy) – we naturally gravitate around our pet doctrines, ideas, passions, and concerns. We are certainly entitled to them. However, when we only entertain and accept our own premises, we are moving into dangerous ground. If prayer only bears the mark of my uniqueness, it may keep me locked up in the bubble of that same uniqueness. Written prayers call us out beyond the confines of our limited understanding and perspective, to a participation in the thoughts, issues and concerns of the wider church.

9) They are easy and accessible – no spiritual acumen is needed, no special experience, talents, gifts, anointings, or education, simply the ability to read. You can be a complete novice in prayer, or a veteran believer who is overwhelmed with frustration concerning their prayer life, and instantly access an incredibly rich prayer life. Written prayers are for everyone and accessible immediately.

10) They are unifying – Because they are so easy and accessible, they can be immediately unifying for people of all different “levels” in experience of prayer. Everyone is on an equal playing field. There are no “prayer experts” who must lead the way as the “novices” sit in befuddled silence. All engage, all participate, all are one.

11) They help us relax – It is remarkable how much anxiety people have about what and how they pray and worship, especially in public. With written prayers, all you have to do is say the words that are already given to you, with no other expectations. In other words you can spend less time worrying about what you are going to say, what other people are going to think about it, how to have a really good prayer, etc., and focus your energy on actually praying and connecting with God.

12) They teach us grace – this is ironic considering the frequent accusations of written prayers being stiff and “religious.” Written prayers teach us that prayer is about God and not about our effort. Many people try so hard to have a prayer life and feel so defeated. The Church’s treasury of written and liturgical prayer is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. It is sheer grace that we can have such an easy entry-point into prayer of unspeakable wealth and depth. Thus prayer is not so much about how disciplined, spiritual, discerning, passionate, contemplative, etc. we are – it is about God’s grace freely given to us who are in such desperate need.

I think in conclusion it is more than appropriate to end with a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, who pours out on all who desire it the spirit of grace and of supplication: Deliver us, when we draw near to you, from coldness of heart and wanderings of mind, that with steadfast thoughts and kindled affections we may worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Emotions Commanded in Scripture

Richard — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:53:52 +0000

The Scripture does not only command us to do certain activites. We are also commanded to feel certain emotions. Thus an emotion-less obedience is not in fact full obedience. God calls us to follow and obey him with our entire selves – all of our bodily, sensory, emotional, spiritual, and relational existence. This might seem unreasonable, as we all know it is impossible to simply turn our emotions on and off. The Bible does not call us to look like we have emotions, but to actually have them. Such requires more than will-power, but the opening of our hearts to God in a process of thorough-going transformation and restoration. In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis describes the process of Christian transformation aptly:

“When Jesus said ‘be holy,’ He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder—in fact it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

While this might seem incredibly overwhelming, it is actually remarkable good news. From this we know that the religion we call Christianity is not simply about behavior modification or straight-jacketing your passions in order to conform to a behavioral norm. Rather, God would say that your passions are too weak, they are too easily satisfied, and Christianity calls you not merely to acquire this or that activity, but to have full liberation of the heart and body to fully flow and function in the manner God intended for humanity in creation. To be fully alive and fully human is at the heart of true Christianity.

The following is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but simply to show some of the extent to which God calls, indeed, commands us not only to do, but to feel.

(1) Joy—Philippians 4:4 – “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again rejoice!” (also Psalm 100:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:16; Romans 12:8, 12, 15)

(2) Love from the heart—1 Peter 1:22 – “Love one another deeply, from the heart” (also Romans 12:10)

(3) Hope— Psalm 42:5 – “Hope in God…” (also 1 Peter 1:13)

(4) Fear—Luke 12:5 – “Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell.” (also Romans 11:20; 1 Peter 1:17)

(5) Peace—Colossians 3:15 – “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…”

(6) Forgiveness from the heart—Matthew 18:35 – “This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” (also Leviticus 19:17-18; Colossians 3:13)

(7) Zeal—Romans 12:11 – “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”

(8) Grief—Romans 12:15 – “…weep with those who weep [sharing others’ grief]” (also James 4:9)

(9) Desire—1 Peter 2:2 – “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation.” (also 1 Corinthians 12:31, 14:1)

(10) Tenderheartedness—Ephesians 4:32 – “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted…” (also 1 Peter 3:8)

(11) Brokenness and contrition—Psalm 51:17 – “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (also James 4:9)

(12) Gratitude— Colossians 2:6-7 – “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him…overflowing with thanksgiving.” (also Ephesians 5:20; Colossians 3:17)

(13) Contentment—Hebrews 13:5 – “be content with what you have” (also Exodus 20:17)

(14) Patience—1 Thessalonians 5:14 – “be patient with everyone.” (Also Colossians 3:12)

(15) Kindness—Micah 6:8 – “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love (love, not just do) kindness.”

(16) Compassion—Colossians 3:12 – “…clothe yourselves with compassion…”

(17) Sympathy—1 Peter 3:8 – “Finally, all of you, have…sympathy…”

(18) Cheerful giving—2 Corinthians 9:7 – “Each one should give…not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

(19) Courage (do not fear)—Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified.” (also Deuteronomy 31:7, 23; Joshua 1:6- 9, 18; 10:25; 1 Chronicles 22:13; 1 Corinthians 16:13)

(20) Confidence (do not worry)—Matthew 6:25 – “Do not worry about your life…”

(21) Awe—Ecclesiastes 5:7 – “Therefore stand in awe of God.”

(22) Hate – Psalm 97:10 – “O you who love the LORD, hate evil!”; Romans 12:9 – “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” (also Amos 5:15)

(23) Do not hate – Leviticus 19:17-18 – “You shall not hate your brother in your heart…You bear a grudge against anyone of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” (also 1 John 2:9, 11; 3:15)

Developing a Consistent Prayer Life

Richard — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 07:37:08 +0000

My apologies – I meant to say, “how to develop an easy, consistent, diverse, deep, rich in content, broadly-biblical, non-idiosyncratic, Christ-centered, historically-rooted, well-rounded, manageable and profoundly moving prayer life,” but thought that title was at the same time unwieldy and immediately open to the charge of being outside the realm of possibility for the majority of normal Christians. Furthermore, if I said all those objectives (minus the “profoundly moving” part – that’s a little more involved) were achievable in less than a week’s time, I would fear my credibility to be even more so depreciated. Thus, the title to this post should be “How to establish an easy, consistent, diverse, deep, rich in content, broadly-biblical, non-idiosyncratic, Christ-centered, historically-rooted, well-rounded, manageable and profoundly moving prayer life in less than one week** (**although the deeply moving may take some more time),” but for now, we’ll settle with the title “as-is.”

I’ve been heavily involved in the Prayer Movement for about 10 years and have worked at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City full-time for over five years, where our central (though not only) focus as a ministry is spending lots of time in prayer (we host prayer meetings 24/7 with attendance that never drops below 100), and equipping others to do the same. Yet I find it remarkable (though not really — I’ll explain why shortly), how frequently I talk to people here who do not pray that much. Yes, they read Christian books. Yes, they open the Bible periodically. Yes, they sing songs, sometimes with exuberance. Yes, they listen to sermons. Yes, they exhort others with reference to the value of prayer. But actually pray?

The surprising frequency with which people actually do not pray at a ministry devoted to prayer is not a phenomenon unique to us by any stretch of the imagination. If you’ve ever attempted to have a prayer life, you know what I’m talking about. You get a certain level of determination to pray and so decide to set aside 15, 30 minutes, maybe even an hour or two each day to pray. The first two minutes go great. You announce your noble intentions to be dedicated to God, thank him for all his mercies and ask him to strengthen you in your daily tasks. Then about twenty minutes later you shake yourself into cognizance realizing that the previous segment of time had been spent either sleeping, day dreaming, planning the rest of your day, worrying about this or that situation, thinking about what you’ll say to that last person who bugged/hurt/angered you, dusting the underside of your desk, or some combination of these. Then you spend the next minute or two apologizing to God or being frustrated with yourself, only 25 minutes later to repeat the same process. Oh Sweet Hour of Prayer!! Sweet indeed! Well…God thought it was endearing, but to the pray-er it was infuriating, demoralizing or both. Oh, by the way, I read about this in book.

Would it be a shock if I told you that today this is rarely my experience (I say rarely, not never)? Not only is this rarely my experience, but this ceased being my regular experience shortly after learning a very simple lesson. This lamentable scenario plays itself out over and over again in the lives of sincere and eager-hearted Christians largely (not only) because they come into the time of prayer with a very significant yet unspoken assumption. Wouldn’t you love to know what that is?

Before I get to that, I want to outline the above criteria. In seeking to cultivate my own practice of prayer, I’ve sought to find a method of prayer by which all of these characteristics can be true. I am maintaining this interlude because I want to subsequently show how my simple lesson enabled me to achieve all of these objectives rather quickly.

easy – the execution of this method cannot be excruciatingly laborious and constantly require all my mental, affective and bodily reserves. This would be impossible to maintain.

consistent - It must be sustainable. I would have to be able to do this method day in and day out – on good days and bad. My central method of prayer should not require or expect me to be in top form all of the time.

deep – in the name of being “easy,” it cannot overlook significantly important issues, questions, concerns, etc.. It has to address and speak to me at the level of my deep heart. Accessibility cannot be a ruse for what is in actual fact, shallow.

rich in content – this also would be an attempt to avoid the shallow – but now in terms of theological depth. This is rooted in the conviction that ultimately, it is true content about God and His world that moves the heart. Emotional experiences without content are shallow at best and fake at worse.

diverse – it would need to draw in many different topics, ideas, themes, emotions, modalities, etc. It can’t be the same every day – because 1) God is diverse 2) Scripture is diverse and 3) monotony is very challenging for me.

well-rounded – I want my prayer life not simply to be diverse, but to be intentionally diverse – over time being thorough in scope, reach and coverage – to provide for me a balanced spiritual diet on a regular basis.

broadly-biblical – biblical verses are important but not enough to make something “biblical.” A concept can employ many “verses” in its defense but in fact be “unbiblical” if it uses those verses in a way that is incompatible with or unfaithful to the larger narrative of Scripture. I want my practice of prayer to draw from from the breadth of Scripture in a way that the overarching drama Scripture is telling gets formed into my life over time.

Christ-centered – prayer fundamentally not anxiously fixated on problems or issues, but confidently centered on the redemptive acts of God in Christ – incarnation, life and ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, outpouring of the Holy Spirit and second coming.

non-idiosyncratic – I refuse to center my prayer life around my small collection of favorite verses, passages, ideas, pet-doctrines, etc. Of course I can have and cherish those, but my spiritually would become narrow-minded and limited if it only bore the marks of my “uniqueness.” Furthermore it would stink of individualism and and a pride insisting only I know and have the best way.

historically-rooted – it seems that the best way to avoid idiosyncrasy would be to draw on the riches of Christian and Jewish history. This would give me a “rooted-ness” that avoids forming my devotional practice on the basis of the “spirit of the age” even if I think somehow it hasn’t affected our modern forms of Christianity (it has – it’s inescapable…

manageable – the method of prayer would need to incorporate all of the above in way that I am not trying to swallow the entire depth, content, diversity and history of Biblical and Apostolic Christianity all at once. It must be capable of consumption in digestible pieces.

profoundly moving – of course my method of prayer must lead me to encounter God on a somewhat regular basis. Now, I am not one for the “myth of constant communion” where one feels the presence of God without ceasing, either throughout all of life, or even throughout an entire prayer time. It would be best if we put that myth to rest because while it is inspiring to a few people, it is utterly demoralizing to the other 98% of normal believers who have actually tried prayer. Nevertheless, I make it my objective to deeply connect to God on the heart level every day. Ultimately, if I am unmoved by all my ideas – I don’t actually believe them. So my method of prayer must serve this function of bringing me into deeper affective awareness of God’s heart for me and deeper expression of my heart to God.

Well…now that I’ve laid out all my criteria for a method of prayer I have been seeking, prospects for such a method may seem quite dismal (especially considering EASY and MANAGEABLE are amongst the criteria). However, I am happy to say that I have found a method that incorporates all of these criteria. The best part is that I didn’t make it up at all – I found it fully functioning and happily satisfying all of my criteria without my ingenuity.

I’ll talk about this more in an upcoming post, but for now I want to get back to that important yet unspoken assumption that many, many contemporary believers bring with them into their times of prayer that often renders their “Sweet Hour of Prayer” as, well, woefully lackluster. Interestingly enough, it is not an assumption that most Christians throughout history have shared. This assumption is that when praying, the words I say, will for the most part (or entirely), be drawn from my own inner spontaneous creativity. In other words, when I pray, I just close my eyes, start talking and expect to keep going for an hour (or more!) with an unceasing flow of inspiration and corresponding cascade of eloquent and moving language. How often does this actually happen? Why do we insist on believing that it will happen anytime soon? Why do we narcissistically maintain our illusion of feigned spiritual prowess and neurotically refuse to believe that we are all in fact novices in the school of prayer?

The opposite approach would be to use pre-written prayers as an aid to your own prayer. This could range from have a pre-written framework from which to add extemporaneous interjections to simply repeating the words of a prayer written by someone else. This one simple switch of mindset (that I don’t have to pull all the words I pray out of nowhere every time I pray) is essentially the key which enabled me to fulfill all of the above criteria in my prayer life. Evidently, simply using pre-written prayers and structures of prayer by itself did not enable this, but it was the key that unlocked the door. I’ll explain more on how this worked for me in subsequent posts. Now, this may be a little anti-climactic if you were hoping for a really great secret. The incredible thing is that this is not a secret at all – the majority of prayer meetings and prayer movements throughout Church history have employed pre-written prayers and prayer (liturgical) frameworks as the bedrock upon which their prayer lives were based. It is almost too easy of a solution.

I understand that there are significant objections to using pre-written prayers and I will address those in my next post. For now I simply want to lay out my initial criteria and show how they are impossible or exceedingly difficult to satisfy using the “pray only from my spontaneous internal creative resources” method.

easy – it is easy in the sense that you don’t have to plan or prepare. Try doing it for a while for extended periods of time and you will soon know it is not easy. It is really hard to come up with fresh language to pray for hours on end, day after day.

consistent - as C.S. Lewis has aptly noted, espousing this approach to prayer requires you to be on top form all the time. It commits the error of assuming that you can do all of the time what you can only do some of the time.

deep – as will be a common thread though many of these criteria – if prayer is only spontaneous, your prayer will essentially be drawn from what you already brought in with you. So…the depth of your prayer will correspond to the depth you already had – that’ll work for the veterans, but good luck for the neophytes!

rich in content – as with above, the content you already had and can spontaneously form into semi-coherent phrases will determine the content of your prayer. This does not bode well for those without 20 years of experience in prayer and the Word.

diverse – ironic as it seems, when prayer is only spontaneous, it often is lacking in diversity. This is because we tend to “spontaneously” gravitate to what is familiar and comfortable to us. Hence our “spontaneity” will only be what we already know and will be limited to our familiar (and predictable) ideas and patterns. Only by great effort does spontaneity actually sustain diversity (violating criteria #1 – EASY and #2 – CONSISTENT).

broadly-biblical – there is no way to ensure that an entirely spontaneous method of prayer will root you in a broad approach to Scripture. Rather the snippets of Scripture you have memorized will find expression in a spontaneously haphazard fashion.

Christ-centered – if the redemptive acts of God in Christ are central to everything you think about then this one will be easy. If you are like most of us and are attempting against many counter currents to form your life in a Christ-centered way, this one will be difficult on your own.

non-idiosyncratic – The very essence of spontaneity is that it is idiosyncratic. This is its main strength and weakness. Expressing yourself is valuable, but in exclusion is severely limited and bordering on narcissistic.

historically-rooted – once again, if you are already profoundly rooted in historic and apostolic Christianity, this one will be a snap (maybe). However, if you are still in the journey of prayer, considering yourself to not yet have arrived, there is no way this will happen on its own.

well-rounded – idiosyncratic prayer seems to necessarily lack being well-rounded.

manageable – perhaps it is manageable – however, I don’t consider the void of all the previous elements to be manageable. I find it depressing.

profoundly moving – I think we’ve already established that a solely spontaneous approach to prayer often yields mediocre results as described above. I find it odd that one of the central objections to using written forms in prayer is the accusation that they are dry and dull. This is a most ironic accusation, considering how awful the experience is of most Christians’ spontaneous attempts at prayer. In fact, it is such a ridiculous assertion that I will not even address it in my next post, in which I will deal with a more formidable objection to written prayers.

Well – I don’t want to end on a down note – so I’ll finish by saying that if you find yourself in the experience of prayer which spends exponentially more time staring at the wall and thinking about other things than actually praying, or perhaps you’ve had that experience and just gave up assuming that it wouldn’t work – there actually is another way – and it actually works – and it actually has been practiced by the majority of praying Christians throughout Church history, especially those who have dedicated their lives to prayer. If you are an expert in prayer, feel no need to continue listening to me. But if you have been longing for “help” in prayer (cf. Rom. 8:28) and have been asking God to “teach you how to pray,” there is help available. Much help. And it is remarkably more easy than you might think. More on this to come.

He Set My Feet on a Rock

Richard — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 01:37:51 +0000

I had a peculiar, yet remarkable experience the other day performing the most simple of actions – shifting my body weight from resting on my heels to the balls of my feet. Modern culture tells us the way to stand is stomach (and rear) in, chest out, shoulders back. This normally happens with locked knees and the weight resting on the heels of the feet. One notable observation of this posture is that while seeming dignified it is absolutely rigid and quite lifeless. That is because when one stands like that the body actually naturally slumps and a tense rigidity is required to hold the body upright. Spontaneous action and true gracefulness are near impossible with stiffness. It’s inherent inflexibility may do well at achieving marked out goals, but at what cost?

Oddly enough, the with the opposite posture (stomach out, pelvis back, knees slightly bent, weight on balls of feet), one stands up straight naturally, without tensing the body. The other day, as I was doing a couple of stretching exercises, getting my weight to rest on the balls of my feet, I suddenly had a strange stronger-than-usual sense that my feet were firmly on the ground. I began to sob as the following quote from C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra ran through my head: “Be comforted…It is no doing of yours…Be comforted small one, in your smallness. He [God] lays no merit on you. Receive and be glad. Have no fear, lest your shoulders be bearing the weight of the world. Look! It is beneath your head and carries you.”

The first posture of rigidity is that of holding one’s self up, of bearing the weight of the world on one’s own shoulders. The latter posture is that of being grounded, standing securely on terra firma, allowing it to hold you. Being a historical over-achiever (which is by no means undiluted joy I assure you) I know the pressure of bearing the weight of the world on my shoulders. This self-sufficiency, rooted in a lack of trust (of God and others), draws enormous affirmation and acclaim from others because of the apparent achievements. Yet at what cost are these achievements made? Can one ever feel secure when holding themselves up? Can one ever give and receive love while burdened with the weight of the world? Remember that the posture of self-sufficiency naturally slumps without a counter-active stringent stiffness to hold the body up. One reason why the self-sufficient person is full of anxiety is because they are intuitively aware that if they fail to hold firm, they will slump and their true (natural) state of indignity will be revealed, in other words, if they fail to maintain an unyielding high level of performance continually, all will crash: the internal barrenness, fear, loneliness and uncertainty will be revealed. The slump that their posture naturally produces will be seen as it is.

Scripture seems at least metaphorically to refer to this “grounding:”

Ps. 27:5 – For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

Ps. 40:2 – He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

On the Road to Emmaus » C.S. Lewis

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