"Spiritual Breathing"

I can’t remember the author’s name right now but I remember years ago reading a book called Your God Is Too Small. It talked about how limiting our various images of God really are and how God is so much more than we can ever define or imagine. Biblical writers certainly understood that truth. There are passages throughout the Bible that remind us of God’s limitlessness. We heard this morning, from Psalm 36, "Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep." Through the prophet Isaiah, God said to humanity, "...my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." As St. Paul said, "...how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ...." God is so much more than our tidy definitions and limited explanations. And so, for that matter, is prayer...because what is "prayer" except 2-way communication with – connection with – God? There are so many books and tapes and seminars out there on "prayer" that one could easily become a "prayer-ologist." Prayer is one of those topics that we could study and analyze and discuss until the end of time...and then I think our Sovereign God would say, "Why is it that you spent so much time talking about me but only a little time talking to me...and even less time listening to me?" We can learn and think and talk about prayer, but the only way to learn how to pray is to pray.

"But I don’t know how" we protest. Jesus’ disciples were the same way: "Lord, teach us how to pray," they said. Well, let me ask you this: who taught you how to breathe? Who sat down with you, at some point when you were emotionally and intellectually ready, and said, "Now. Breathing is a complicated procedure involving various body systems, intricate timing and coordination of the senses. Pay close attention, read this series of books by well-known breathers and perhaps, some day, you too can learn how to breath correctly."

No. You came out of the womb gasping for air, breathing with all your might and you haven’t stopped – at least not for long – since then. Well, guess what? That’s also how it is with prayer. Prayer, at its deepest essence, is not something we study – it’s something we do. It’s innate..it’s natural...it is, believe it or not, almost effortless. Poet James Montgomery wrote,

"Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,

Uttered or unexpressed –

The motion of a hidden fire,

That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,

The falling of a tear,

The upward glancing of an eye,

When none but God is near."

Now, it’s true that there are all kinds of "methods" for prayer. There are historical traditions, upon which religious movements have been founded, that emphasize particular ways to pray. None of them is "right" in contrast to others that are "wrong." There is "centering prayer" and "praying the Scriptures," there’s liturgical prayer, contemplative prayer, journaling prayer, active prayer. There is the use of the prayer labyrinth; people form prayer circles, attend prayer groups, call prayer lines. No one way to prayer is the "right" way to pray. And chances are, the more ways we pray, the more we will reap, spiritually, from the activity of praying. Just as our cardio-vascular systems reap the benefits of exercises that challenge our breathing, so our spirits grow stronger from the practices of prayer.

On Saturday, March 3^rd, we’re going to have a one day "retreat" here to focus on "Personality Types and Spirituality." A special guest, Rev. Dr. Laurel Hayes will join us to teach us about our differing personality types and temperaments using the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator and then we’ll explore different approaches to spirituality that seem to work better for different personality types. While we don’t all "connect" with God in the same ways, it’s important that we understand ourselves enough to choose and practice disciplines that will help us to better connect with God.

Prayer – at its most basic essence – is, I believe, just that: connecting with God...communicating with God... awareness of God. We’ve provided these Prayer Journals, for example, because "listening" for the Word of God in Scripture, praying the same words that others are praying, writing our thoughts and insights are all methods of going deeper in prayer.

But I personally believe that the connection matters more than the method. Some of us just can’t seem to do guided meditations, for example. When we’re supposed to be picturing a meadow filled with wildflowers, we suddenly realize that we’re accidentally making out the grocery list. Some of us connect best through music, others through reading. Personal quiet time works better for some, while others enjoy praying together with a group. I don’t think any of these methods matters nearly as much as it matters that we become totally and fully aware of God.

This one man couldn’t seem to settle on the right posture for prayer. He tried praying on his knees, but that wasn’t comfortable and, besides, it wrinkled his slacks. He tried praying standing up, but soon his legs got tired. He tried to pray while seated but that didn’t seem reverent enough. He stretched out on the floor, prostrate to God...and soon fell asleep. Then one day, as he was walking through a field, he fell headfirst into an open well. And wow! Suddenly he could pray!

Awareness is essential. Awareness of God’s presence. Awareness of our need for God. Awareness of our connection to God. We don’t see and are rarely conscious of the air around us and yet we know its there or we would die. We don’t see and are too rarely conscious of God around us and so we feel spiritually dead. We need a keen awareness of God in order to be able to truly pray...to connect.

Many times our prayers are, essentially, spiritual 911 calls. You know that when you call 911 you’re automatically connected with a dispatcher. In front of the dispatcher will be a read-out that lists your telephone number, your address and the name by which that telephone number is listed. The dispatcher has instant access to the police, the fire department or paramedics...whatever your need may be.

A caller might not be able to say what the problem is. Or perhaps the person’s partner has just suffered a heart attack and they’re too upset to speak clearly. But it doesn’t matter. The dispatcher knows where the call is coming from and help is already on the way.

There are times in our lives when, in our desperation and pain, we dial 911 prayers. Sometimes we’re hysterical. Sometimes we don’t know the words to speak. But God hears. God knows our name and our circumstance. Help is already on the way. We need to be more aware of that presence and that promise.

The Scriptures say that "the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groans and sighs that words cannot express. And God who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit...."

God is here, and God knows our needs. Prayer is the means by which we can receive the connection to God’s power and strength...God’s patience and wisdom...as we endure our present circumstances, knowing that God will be with us through all things.

At the same time, though, prayer is not meant to be our release from personal responsibility. We were never intended to ask God, or even to rely on God, to do those things that we are fully capable of doing for ourselves.

A woman took her 6-year-old son camping and they were fishing one day. They put out a line with multiple hooks along it and then went up to their tent for a while. After an hour, they went back down to the river to see if they had caught anything. Sure enough, there were several fish on the line. The boy said, "I knew there would be, Mom." The woman said, "And how did you know?" The boy replied, "Because...I prayed about it."

So they baited the hooks again and put out the line and went back to the tent for supper. Afterward they went back to the river, and again there were fish on the line. The boy said, "I knew it!" "How?," his mom asked. "I prayed again."

So they put the line back into the river and went to the tent. Before bedtime, they went down to check it again. This time there were no fish. The little boy said, "I knew there wouldn’t be," and his mother asked, "How did you know?" He replied, "Because I didn’t pray this time."

His mother asked, "And why didn’t you pray?" "Because...I remembered that we forgot to bait the hooks."

Prayer is not the "magic formula" we use to get what we want. We are in this world with a free will and with personal responsibility to do all that we are capable of doing for ourselves. Prayer is the means by which we are to connect with the One who Is far more and can do far more than we are capable of or could even imagine. "Learning how to pray" is simply a matter of becoming more and more aware of God and of our connection with God...and making a point to intentionally communicate with God – not for the purpose of using God but for the purpose of being in relationship with God.

Hear these words by a man named Howard Booth:

"God is not a good habit,

a useful Sunday exercise,

one interest among others,

a fascinating hobby.

God is life itself.

God is Someone

not to be analyzed,

examined, proved...

but to be met.

And when that happens,

Life unfold,

meanings matter,

love is deeper.

Be still. Relax. Unwind.

Open those inner doors."

Prayer is spiritual breathing – without it our spirits die; with it, they have life. There’s a billboard off of highway 44 advertising the impact of giving diamonds as a gift and it says in big letters, "Breathe, honey. Breathe." Well, spiritually, prayer is to be our very breath, and that’s what God wants us to do: "Breathe, honey. Breathe." Amen.

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