O God of holiness,
Grant us to seek peace where it is truly found!
In your will, O God, is our peace.
(Thomas Merton)
In my life, I lean easily into prayer as meditation, prayer as discernment, prayer as a private practice that sustains me and expands my sense of wonder. I draw comfortably from the deep and many wells of Christian tradition, as well as Eastern practices and others that meet my hunger for communion with God and the holy now. Prayer is essential in my life.
But recently I'm struck by the sweet power of inter-personal prayer: that moment when a friend takes my hand after a deep conversation and says, "I'd like to pray with you," or the other when a colleague shows up in my office simply to sit with me for a minute and pray for a project she knows has tested my spiritual center. In these moments, the humanity of God shimmers and shines around us, my friends and me. The Human One--hands and heart, compassion and breath--seems confoundingly close. "I'd like to pray with you."
If I'm honest, I have to say that these unexpected and unscripted moments of prayer are sometimes quite awkward. Though I've been doing 'professional' ministry for almost three decades, I come out of a tradition that prizes intellect and is sometimes suspicious of more tactile practices. So I flinch sometimes. Am I comfortable being prayed for, so directly, so intimately, by another? Will I find words of my own, meaningful words, honest and heartfelt words, when my time comes? But lately, I'm moved not so much by eloquence and vocabulary, but by the intention that comes through, tangibly, powerfully. When we pray. For one another. For the world. Together.
A couple of times, I've prayed with friends in public, at coffee shops after particularly honest, searching conversations. Again, this isn't something, in my tradition at least, we tend to do a whole lot. But, wow, how powerful to acknowledge--in the light of day, in the ordinary places of ordinary time--the connections between us, and the One who bears life in the midst of those holy connections. If God's at play in a redwood grove, or a cathedral, surely she's stirring in a coffee house or on the subway. I believe that my own discipleship unfolds in these ordinary places. I get the importance of cultivating a quiet, deep and contemplative spirit; but I'm so struck by the relief I find when friends acknowledge our shared faith, after sweet conversation, and do it without hesitation or embarrassment. Wherever we are.
I'll continue to think about all this. And I'll wonder if I might--more regularly--risk inter-personal prayer. Out in the open! Not as a sign of any special wisdom or expertise on my part...and not as a proud claim to divine favor at others' expense...But as an expression of gratitude for the Spirit's constancy, and as a craving for mercy across the many demands of daily life and discipleship.
See: Dave's sermon on prayer in community--"Stay Awake and Pray"
See: Dave's sermon on prayer in community--"Stay Awake and Pray"
