It’s weird when I think about.
There’s really nothing about me that would make me someone who is naturally inclined to enjoy prayer meetings. Growing up in a church background I genuinely found prayer and prayer meetings to be among the most boring parts of the Christian practices to which I was exposed.
I remember having to follow my parents as we went into national conventions that had the morning prayer meetings. I remember sometimes my Dad would either lead the session itself or be asked to talk at it. I know it was something for my Dad to be involved in the national convention, but I always got the impression that prayer meetings were a bit like the graveyard shift. To say it was not the most popular service of the convention would be an understatement. Likewise even beyond that I just found it incredibly tedious and boring. People going on and on talking and talking. As it was people all talking at the same time it wasn’t even as if I could pick up one person’s train of thought. It was just a mass of noises that seemed to go on interminably and in as much as some people evidently got excited about it, I only got excited about the very real hope that it would end and thus liberate me to get something to eat and drink and move onto something far more interesting to me.
To be honest with you, even when I made more of a conscious choice to follow Jesus in my teenage years, I didn’t really take prayer too seriously. The thing with being a fairly competent speaker is that in public settings that capacity can certainly give the impression to others that you can hold your own when it comes to prayer. The reality for me, though. was that it was a cover. I was just picking up the tips I’d come across from other people as to how to do public prayers and winged it.
Thank God, then, that He got my attention and used a number of episodes in life to take prayer very seriously indeed. Trust me when I tell you even when I began that journey it was very evident that learning to appreciate prayer was not something to be grasped in a moment or on an occasion – it really was a journey. Even now as I type I am only too aware that for as much as I think I know about prayer, there is so much more to learn.
The thing about learning, though, is that in biblical times, it was evident that people learnt by hanging around those considered to be good models of whatever it was you wanted to learn. It was the apprenticeship model where if you wanted to be a good carpenter, you spent time with a good one, observed, questioned, participated with and then took on tasks in line with the trade. That also applied to the teachings and lifestyle of a decent Rabbi. So praying was something you could learn from others. Praying was also something that was communal in nature, not just individualistic.
It’s fascinating to see how the individualistic bent has veered people away from corporate opportunities to pray and actively learn how to pray. I have heard of congregations where regular prayer gatherings are well attended and beloved. My experience, however, has been that such gatherings are the worst attended. Yet in that, I’m not perturbed and desperate to make it popular. I’m more interested in how to come alongside people and see how that learning and sharing experiences in prayer can be cultivated in creative ways. It’s also fascinating to explore why people are happy to do the spectator thing of gathering to see the religious experts do their thing, but why they’re less inclined to see church life as a participatory one where their contributions in serving others and praying together is vital to Body building and the life of Christ being expressed to the world.
Seeing how important prayer has been in the life of all those who pursue God on a corporate as well as individual level, it’s odd seeing some modern approaches of followers of God that seems to minimise it.
It’s weird when I think about it.
(Photo by Ben White on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 