Prayer and Solitude

So, as I am reading excerpts from Henri Nouwen, I am challenged to sit still before God and listen to him.

So I sat in my quiet office at the church. I can only hear the A/C running.  I look away from the computer and notice the ticking of my watch.  So, I settle--with eyes closed.  I was afraid I might fall asleep.  Instead, a torrent of thoughts, voices, criticisms, hopes, accomplishments, scheduled items, and a host of random thoughts flooded my mind.

Nouwen was right.  "As soon as we are alone, without people to talk with, books to read, TV to watch, or phone calls to make, an inner chaos opens up.  This chaos is so disturbing and so confusing that we can hardly wait to get busy again.  . . .   when we remove our outer distractions, we often find that our inner distractions manifest themselves to us in full force."

So I find that solitude forces me to deal with the life issues that I try to avoid everyday.

Nouwen also writes, "In solitude, we come to know the Spirit who has already been given to us.  The pains and struggles we encounter in our solitude thus become the way to hope, because our hope is not based on something that will happen after our sufferings are over, but on the real presence of God's healing Spirit in the midst of these sufferings.
The discipline of solitude allows us gradually to come in touch with this hopeful presence of God in our lives."

Take some time to sit still before your God.  And let him help you work through the noise of solitude.

Praying for Pain and a connection with Christ's sacrifice

An interesting note in the devotional material by Julian or Norwich.  She views pain as God's mercy which purges sin.  Julian actually wanted to experience Christ's pain on the cross, to have an intimate understanding of his sacrifice.  She truly felt  the need to have a physical connection with Christ suffering.

This is definitely not American Christianity.

As I read her thoughts, I realized that anyone who has suffered with a life-threatening illness must come to terms with pain and death in an intimate fashion.  I wonder if that type of experience can lead one to a deeper understanding of the cross and Christ's suffering.  I have seen people who have grown closer to God through extreme sickness.

I found it interesting that Julian also came to a realization that her life in this world was made more valuable through her near death experience.  She came to terms with death, and then wanted to survive death in order "to love God better and longer" with a hope that she could love him more deeply in this life than in the next.

So, should I pray for pain and trial in order to 1) know God more intimately, and 2) to know Christ's suffering more intimately, and 3) to allow the pain to push out my own selfishness and sinfulness by making me more like Christ?

I keep coming back to Philippians 3:10-11.  "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." 

Somehow, Paul thought that if he suffered for the Gospel, then he shared in Christ's suffering, which would make him closer to Christ--somehow.  Paul states that by becoming like Christ in suffering and death, then he would attain(?) the resurrection.  Does he mean "earn"?  Or does he mean "participate"?

Paul has found a mystical connection between his life work and the death of Jesus.  What would happen if we were able to do the same?

Praying to know Christ's suffering

This week we are studying Julian of Norwich, an English mystic (1343-1413) whose writing focused on knowing Christ through suffering.  After having perused some of Julian's writings, I have found that when she says she had visions, she really believed she saw Holy Spirit inspired, extra-biblical revelations of truth.   Having a deep respect for scripture as God's authoritative revelation, I found it hard to follow many of her thoughts.  Having said that, I still found much benefit in the devotional readings contained in our book.

One of the powerful aspects of Julian's writings is her dealings with pain and sorrow. She states that she had 3 main revelations from God, the first being a deep connection with the death (passion) of Christ. She states, "My wish was to be present with those who loved Christ and were with him at his passion so that I, with my own eyes, might have seen the passion which our Lord suffered for me, and so that I might have suffered with him as the others did who loved him."

It was her desire to experience the pain of Christ so deeply--to see his love in action and feel it--so that she might know him more deeply.

Is this possible, and what benefit is it?

There are some Bible passages in Paul that reflects this idea of knowing Christ through his suffering.
Romans 5:3-6 And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Philippians 1:29 "For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him,

Philippians 3:10-11 "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Romans 6: 3-5 "Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection."

2 Corinthians 4:10-11 "We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body."

Each passage is worthy of our attention.  Romans 6 has captured my attention for many years now.  I hope to further dwell on that passage.

For this current thought, I see that Paul senses a connection between his sufferings for the Gospel and Jesus' suffering on the cross.  Thus, he participates in Christ's death through his own sacrifices for the Gospel.  Thus he is granted the right to suffer like Jesus (Phil. 1:29), united in death with Christ (Romans 6), carrying the death of Christ in him (2 Cor 4), and sharing in his suffering (Phil. 3), which changes his character (Romans 5:3) and brings true joy.  Thus, Paul thinks it is possible, and that the benefit is Christian maturity.

This seems to be the thread of truth that Julian speaks to in her writings, even she arrives at her conclusions in a mystical form.  This is not to justify all of Julian's thoughts.  However, I think our emphasis for the week is very challenging and biblical.

So, how much of Christ's suffering have you contemplated?  We know he died.  How much did he suffer for you?  What did his family suffer as they watched?  Do you take it for granted that he died for you?

As a disciple, do you want to follow him by following his example of suffering?

Is suffering a part of God's plan to know him and be transformed by him?  Or is suffering simply a product of sinful world that must be rejected and avoided?

Prayer as Meditation

Confession: meditation is difficult enough without having mental ADD issues.

Thomas Merton says that meditation can be a descent into "nothingness."  I find this language somewhat dangerous.  I understand that nothingness can be a reflection on death and suffering.  Yet, human meditation as an emptying of the self is dangerous is nothing is there to fill the void.  I am reminded of Jesus' teaching in Luke 11:24-26.

"When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first."

Thus, it is dangerous to empty the mind of soul without intent to fill it with something more beneficial.

To give Merton credit, he does show that the emptiness of the should whould be accompanied with or guided by scripture.  In this way we are filled with divine and holy truth in place of our own emptiness or the world's vanities.  For Christians, this path away from the world and fleshly desire and into spiritual awareness through scripture and the Holy Spirit is a true path to enlightenment, a term that describes a place of God's wisdom and inner transformation.

So, what benefit could meditation be?  Well, it is like exercise.  It takes time to get into the habit, and it gets easier as you work at it.  Eventually, your spirit will crave the adrenaline and energy that comes from the meditative exercise.  There will be incremental changes, and they should be evident in time spent meditating, and also the knowledge of God gained through the intentional focus on his Presence and his Scripture.

Meditate on Psalm 139 again.  "I know the end of my days, how fleeting my life is.  Surely everyone stands as a mere breath.  Surely everyone walks about like a shadow.  Surely everyone is in turmoil for nothing.    They pile up and do not know who will keep it.

And now Lord, what do I wait for?  My hope is in you."

The world is empty.  But our lives are full due to the hope that we have through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Cherish this thought.  Let everything else--my accomplishments, my activities, my worries, my desires--evaporate in the heat of the day or the cool mists of the night.  Our Lord and God will never change.  I wait for him.  Lord, let your desires transform me.  My hope is in you.

This devotional thought is based on readings from "Devotional Classics: Selected Reading for Individuals and Groups."  Renovare Resources.  Harper, 1993.

Prayer as attitude

A simple thought on prayer.  Prayer is not magic, nor is it systematic.  Prayer is attitude and relationship.  There is no formula (even "in Jesus' name") that assures us of an outcome or result for our prayers.  Can I go so far as to say that there is no right or wrong prayer to pray?  It seems to me that the attitude and heart of the prayer are more important than the words that are said in the prayer.

For example, see  Luke 18:9-14.

⁹And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: ¹⁰“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹“The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹²‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ ¹³“But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ ¹⁴“I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Thus, when we pray, we do not seek a systematic solution to life's problems.  Instead we pray to acknowledge God and to know God more, to know his will, to work through our issues but not to solve them.  Prayer is not a system that handles our difficulties.  Prayer itself is difficult and goes against human thought and desire.  Yet, we must learn the heart of prayer--and be disciplined in prayer--if we are to grow in faith and knowledge of our God and Savior.

Meditation: Psalm 39.   "I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue. . . . .  And now, what do I wait for?  My hope, O Lord, is in you.  Deliver me from my transgressions.  Do not make me the scorn of fools."

Spend 15 minutes dwelling on these (and other) verses in Psalm 39.  Let your mind be filled with God's word, and shut all other images and noises as you focus on his truth.