Prayer is something of a mystery to me.

Once I heard the late Keith Green’s wife Melody giving a talk where she finished it off by challenging the audience to commit themselves to praying two prayers every day:

[1] I will go ANYWHERE You want me to go.

[2] I will do ANYTHING You want me to do.

I doubt many of us would be brave enough to pray those prayers every day and really mean them. Would you?

I find that often prayer can become this thing of me reading my shopping list out to God of all the things I want. My desire to pray the next time might depend on how many of those things I believe God said “Yes!” to.

In Romans 12, the writer reminds us that when we become followers of Jesus, we are meant to have our lives ‘transformed by the renewing of our minds’.  So maybe prayer is one area where we need to see that taking shape differently.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF PRAYER

My wife tbV [aka The Beautiful Val] and I had the privilege of visiting a Benedictine monastery during our time living in America a couple of years ago.

One thing we were really challenged by was their sense of the bigger picture. When a monk commits to being a Benedictine, instead of committing to the whole movement, he commits to a specific monastery, and while there is flexibility if they realise it is not a good fit, the commitment is typically for life.

In our transient world we often look back to a decision made in October last year and reflect on how that changed the path of our lives. The Benedictines will look back at an incident that occurred 60 years ago and see the same thing. It is such a wider scope and way of viewing things that gives you much more opportunity to send some roots down and be part of building something that lasts longer.

If all that is not enough for you to think about, then let me leave you with this prayer, passed on to us from the Benedictines and ask if this is perhaps something each one of us can commit to praying each day to the greater good of our lives and those of our family, our community and perhaps even our country and world?

Prayer of Discomfort

“May God bless you with a restless discomfort
about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships,
so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression,
and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for
justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer
from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may
reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that
you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able,
with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.”

How about it? Do you DARE to pray this risky prayer with me?