The View from Here January 27, 2011

In his book, Answering God, Eugene Peterson speaks of the language of prayer as “primal speech.”  What he means by that is that it is something that we just do–there are no ‘right words’ to express our prayer.  “We do not first learn how to do it and then proceed to do it; we do it, in the doing we find out what we are doing, and then deepen and mature in it.”

Psalm 3:1 says: “O Lord, how many are my foes.”  This is the first sentence of the first prayer in the psalms.  It is short, and urgent.  They are words of one who is perhaps, afraid.  They are the words of one who seems to be in a desperate place, and is crying out to God for help.

That seems to be the basic language of prayer.  It is personal, direct, and desperate.  Things are out of control–we don’t know what to do; we feel overwhelmed by life, and in our angst, we cry out to God.

When you think about it, the first sound any of us makes, is a cry when we are born.  It takes us many months before our cries, our whimpering, our cooing and any other of our “infant sounds” are shaped into words.  Yet, our parents and care givers are able to figure out that we are hungry; tired; need to be changed; or just plain happy.

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My mother died when I was nineteen years old.  There were times that the only way I could communicate with God was through my anger, and angst:
“What now?”  “Why did this have to happen?” And although I could not find the ‘right’ words to express myself, I know that God heard the anguish of my plea.

I believe that a lot of our most significant prayer times, are born out of the pain of loss, and uncertainty.  We don’t have the words; we can’t quite say it clearly–we just have this ache in our hearts, and we groan in God’s presence.  It really is okay to do that.  And God really does understand.

What are some of the life experiences that have shaped your prayers?

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