When it comes to writing it is a joy and a delight to get ideas and be able to write them out and shape them and reshape them and set them, then come back to them and see how they have changed with time and circumstances.
As you may have noted extended thoughts from dmcd have been a bit sparse on the ground and as I mentioned at the latest Prayer Points, I’ve been suffering health wise both mentally and physically after a particularly taxing season in me life. So as my friends have diagnosed things have just come to a head at just the right time. (I’m on annual leave.) I am still recovering a great deal, but in all that time the ideas don’t stop and as long as it is day and I have breathe in my body God sees fit to put in even more ideas and reflections worth pondering on – there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of material from one source or another – usually His written Word.
What inspired this particular ponder was an event that happened recently. We as a family hosted and entertained a dear sister we’ve come across in our time here in Beautiful Bletchley. (It really is a beautiful part of Britain, I’m getting quite fond and attached to it.) One thing my wife excels at is creating a warm, friendly atmosphere in which people feel valued and comfortable to be themselves. I just come in line with the great work she does.
On this occasion as we sat reclining after another masterpiece of a meal by my beloved (she’s really good at this food stuff and my stomach knows it right well), we conversed on many personal matters and developed an even deeper understanding for each other. This naturally led to prayer.
OK – let me stop right there.
That statement was deliberately provocative. I mean how many times does a conversation your having naturally lead into prayer? Yet isn’t that really the most natural culmination of casual, informal, filial conversation with brothers and sisters in Christ? Or am I being idealistic or unrealistic? I remember that happening quite a lot in some of my friendships in my last year or so in Stoke-on-Trent, funnily enough not necessarily with my ‘immediate’ church family in terms of corporate affiliation, but definitely with the church family as defined beyond that ‘corporate affiliation’.
Anyway the conversation led to prayer. After those were offered our guest left. Yet what bothered me later on was how comfortable, great, refreshing, invigorating and challenging prayer appeared to be in the context of usually, casual, informal life among brothers and sisters. Nothing too bothering about that in itself, but when I considered my history and background of prayer meetings and their popularity and great attendance, I can’t help but think that there’s bound to be some resistance to a constrained and ritualistic approach to something as important as corporate prayer.
I’m not saying do away with prayer meetings and such, I just wonder again when we read in scripture of prayer meetings they are usually held in response to a situation that mobilises the forces to pray. People recognise the need and they come together. Not saying these are perfect displays of prayer, but in these there are seeds to how we can be carrying about our business today. If prayer is just another part of a week of activities that tick boxes for church life, it doesn’t have that element of a cause to mobilse people who want to pray. There is of course all sorts of other issues about people’s approach to praying privately and among brethren that needs to be lovingly addressed as well.
What is clear from that episode is that so much of Christian formation can take place in New Life as the normal and informal and casual, rather than in set-pieces that don’t actually inform and instruct – edify if you will.
Just blogging.
That is all.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 