discipled living

Abraham Heschel published these words in 1954,

"There was never a time in which the need for self-expression was so much stressed.  Yet, there was never a time in which self-expression was so rarely achieved; in which there was so much pressure to adjust oneself to conventions, cliches, to vogue and standardization.  The self is silent, words are dead and prayer is a forgotten language.  

Man cannot pour his heart into a vacuum.  If words are artificial signs, if meaning is but an invention; if there is no echo to the anguish of a tortured world; if man is alone; if the world moves in a vacuum, of what ultimate worth is all expression?"   (Man's Quest For God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism pg. xi)

Prayer is the most misunderstood, infrequently taught, yet most often used and profoundly intimate of all our disciplines. Attend virutally any form of worship event and see how often prayer is used and the many ways it is abused.

Prayer has been used as a surrogate sermon, a veiled attack and pretentious profession. We have learned to pray rote phrases, strung together with lyric tones as a substitute for an authentic outpouring beforeGod.

We commit to memory the Child's Prayer; saying without thought or feeling, "Now I lay me down to sleep..." We mouth the Lord's Prayer never truly grasping the truth that each of us should wrap our arms around. We victimize the hallowed practice of prayer, making a mockery of the divine opportunity it offers.

Prayer is a sublime invitation to approach the unapproachable and to SPEAK! In Prayer we are given a channel through which, what we cannot say to another living being, may be said to the Living One.

Prayer may come haltingly from our lips as evidence of either our disconnect or our profound hurt and injury. Prayer may flow over our lips as if it were a flood mounting the banks of a river, swelling; leaving nothing in its path untouched and unchanged.

The problem with Prayer is that we feel compelled to use our words, human creations. Words are symbols, reasonable facsimilies of the real, the deep, ineffable and inward cry.

Prayer is more than practice, yet it is practice as well. We must never mistake our act of Praying for Real Prayer. The act and form of Prayer are simply the wrapping, the conduit through which we lift our heart to God for His examination. In that moment the sublime dialogue begins and the real LOVE meant for all relationships can be experienced.