“But prayer is not always natural. Prayer can be some of the hardest work a Christian can do. Because prayer does call us into a space in which we admit our complete helplessness to engineer our lives and petition the Triune God of the universe to intercede on our behalf, prayer can be a humbling act of submission we do not want to engage in – especially when we think we have the means to fulfill our potential by ourselves.”
“When defining spiritual intuition, it is a marvel think that God can put an idea into someone’s mind, and that person can comprehend that idea, and immediately act with unquestioning determination!”
“I was headed in the wrong direction, even though the church was headed in the right direction.”
Fasting is more than denying ourselves food. It is choosing to act out, by temporarily denying ourselves food, that we do not live by bread alone. We are completely dependent upon God, and we deliberately choose voluntary weakness. We become identifiably humble in the face of the problems with which we are dealing. We admit to each other, and primarily to God: only you can get us through this “mess.”
Is it alive? Does it glorify God? Does it produce an abundant harvest that blesses friend and stranger? Are we making new, younger, more diverse disciples of Jesus Christ? For the mainline church in the United States, and the United Methodist Church in particular, this is our primary task.
Are you ready to go, to do more than say the words, but to become that prayer that focuses on the heart of God, that ushers in forgiveness, that brings about a new relationship, that stands against evil and temptation, that becomes the very power and presence of God?
You want to know what to pass down the line? It is this: your life is not your life. It is Christ’s, and Christ would have you live your life with others in mind.
I often talk about “speaking faith,” which for me means (among other things) giving life to our ideas and beliefs by speaking them aloud. Moving them from the realm of our personal, interior selves to an external realm where they can become infectious and dynamic. That’s the kind of thing I want to happen to my prayers, to my fasting, to whatever self-denial I decide to undertake.
Richard Rohr uses the term, “clumsy stewards” to describe how many people manage and tend to their inner selves. I know he is right about me. I most certainly am a clumsy steward of my own self.
We are ‘unfinished’ humans until we consent to the power of the Spirit and are drawn into a wholeness of being… Christian spiritual masters through the centuries have had different ways of describing that process.
