#64 A WOMAN'S BLOG: DAY SIX -- PRAYER
#63 A WOMAN’S BRIEFS: DAY SIX – PRAYER
In this ten-day ditch of discipline I have dug for myself, today, and again on day eight, Easter Saturday, I will share from the “Faith” section of Moon Snail Shells and Other Broken Things.
1989 — The book doesn’t say what month or day, I wrote:
A woman complained recently that she did not know whether she was praying rightly, as though somehow God’s answers depend upon style. I answered her with the following story. She said, Please, write that down.Obviously, I did. Here it is, starring our beautiful rescued Border Collie, Storge, who hated the UPS truck; whose name is Koine Greek for affectionate love.
STORGE, as a pup visiting Washington state
Recently, my dog Storge and I were walking. I got quickly impatient with her lagging behind. “Heel, Storge!” I commanded. I paid little attention to her. I jerked at the leash, scolded, and commanded before finally turning to notice that Storge was favoring her left hind foot. Between forced steps, she had struggled to bite at its pad. I stopped, instructed her to sit, and did my own inspection. I removed a large sticker from her foot, then pressed a huge thorn of guilt in my heart.
Storge does not speak People. She did her best to inform me of her problem. In her dog way she communicated trouble and need. Then she trusted me when finally, I came to her aid.
I do not “speak” God. I bumble along sometimes obeying, sometimes stumbling, sometimes hurting. I know many of the master’s commands and sometimes obey them. I do my best to return my own expressions of need to the one who, by the way, never misinterprets my behavior, as I did Storge’s.
It is not some formula of prayer I need to develop, even though I heard an Atlanta radio minister recently say I must. It is not a better comprehension of biblical principles of prayer, as so many are saying in published books, and so many are inclined to believe these days, what with principles being our trendy key to spiritual success.
It is, I am willing to wager, simple, performance-free communication. The Creator understands the bungling language of his creatures. We are invited to talk “people.”
Peter was bungling, and dead wrong when he said to Jesus, I will go to the death for you. He wouldn’t. Still, he was chosen to lead the church.
Moses was cowardly, and wrong, when he said he was not eloquent. He was. No one preached longer or more persuasively than he (see his sermons in the Jewish book of Deuteronomy).
Jonah was RIGHT when he said, I don’t want to be a leader; when he admitted to not liking people God liked. But he was wrong when he thought that excused him from serving.
When a very religious man prayed with God-language, scriptures tell us that God dismissed the words as cheap drama. The Christian text says God preferred the prayer of a sinful man who spoke “people.”
Who am I to argue?
