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I think most of us would have to
admit that it’s quite flattering to be approached for help,
especially when we’re assured that we have just the right gifts
for the particular situation. We hear,
for example, that we’re just the person needed to join the PCC;
the healing team; the fund raising group; the pastoral
committee; the PTA; the choir; the Rotary Club etc...’.
Sometimes, instead of giving the
requests prayerful consideration, we can find that our egos seem
to have taken us over and we seem incapable of saying anything
other than an immediate ‘yes’! Or we have to say ‘yes’ because
it’s too difficult, and would fill us with such guilt, to say
‘no’.
Now it may of course be that God
is directing us to respond affirmatively to the request, but do
we sometimes follow the path I’ve described and then realise
that we’ve never even thought to pray for guidance?
A phrase that seems to be
cropping up in my life recently, is the fact that we are human
beings rather than human doings. This started me thinking about
how we fill our days and the fact that so many seem over
burdened by their many activities, struggling to find any time
just to ‘be’ and to have space in their lives.
Jesus, as we know, was a man of
prayer and action; often it’s striking that he delayed or
deferred action in order to pray.
Since the terrible events of the
11th September, it seems that many have started to question
their priorities and that out of this questioning and fears for
the future, they have felt moved to pray and to seek solace in
places of worship. The sense of powerlessness in the face of
evil has really brought home the truth that the world can be a
dangerous place and that no one can be confident of the immunity
from danger.
What we can be confident about is
the power of prayer and the great need for prayer in these
troubling times. As someone once said - ‘if we’re too busy to
pray, then we’re too busy!’ What example do we as followers of
Christ, wish to convey? Is it one of calmness and quiet
confidence, under-girded by our prayers, or one of frantic
activity?
People may be looking to us, as people of faith, to guide them
by our example and to accompany them, as they seek to make sense
of the world. This challenge could be a positive thing, to come
out of so much sorrow, and to meet it we surely have a duty to
make prayer our priority.
We’re perhaps also challenged to
reflect on the corporate nature of our spirituality, and the
reasons why we may long to grow spiritually. Is it so we can
feel personally enriched, or is it so that we can better serve
our Lord and his creation?
By Revd Julie Cox Reproduced with kind permission from Spirituality Newsletter,
Winter 2001. |
