Confused Mix of Wandering and Worrying

Our spring women’s study started recently. We’re going through Paul Miller’s (excellent) book, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, and I thought I’d share a few nuggets with you from last week’s study (emphases added are mine):

– (After sharing a story of his daughter’s frustration because “prayer, it seemed, didn’t work” …) “Few of us have Ashley’s courage to articulate the quiet cynicism or spiritual weariness that develops when heartfelt prayer goes unanswered. We keep our doubts hidden even from ourselves because we don’t want to sound like bad Christians. No reason to add shame to our cynicism. So our hearts shut down. …

Cynicism and glibness are just part of the problem. The most common frustration is the activity of praying itself. We last for about fifteen seconds and then out of nowhere the day’s to-do list pops up and our minds are off on a tangent. We catch ourselves and, by sheer force of will, go back to praying. Before we know it, it has happened again. In stead of praying, we are doing a confused mix of wandering and worrying. Then the guilt sets in …”

– “We know we don’t need to clean up our act in order to become a Christian, but when it comes to praying, we forget this … We don’t know how bad we are until we try to be good … Jesus does not say, ‘Come to me, all you who have learned how to concentrate in prayer, whose minds no longer wander, and I will give you rest.’ … No, the criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy.“

– “Don’t be embarrassed by how needy your heart is and how much it needs to cry out for grace. Just start praying. Remember the point of Christianity is not to learn a lot of truths so you don’t need God anymore.”

– “You’d think if Jesus was the Son of God, he wouldn’t need to pray.”

That last quote is worth the price of the entire book, I think.

I’m looking forward to spending these ten weeks with these dear women and learning and growing with them in this “praying life” adventure.

Blessings to you on this wonderful day of corporate worship and rest!

Yours,
Tara B.