In Searching for God Knows What Donald Miller made a really great point about how Christians have a tendency to turn spiritual matters into formulas. (LOL. That sentence totally sounds like the opening line of one of those Q & A sections they put in the back of books for study or group discussion.)
I was thinking about it this morning while I was trying to go back to sleep. (LOL. Didn't I come up with a post last week the same way? Must work on this during my waking hours!) I guess my body is really accustomed to getting up and going to work, because I keep waking up ridiculously early, even when I have an extra hour or two to sleep in and don't set my alarm. Anyhow, I woke up, and in my half-sleep state, I found my mind wandering in unexpected directions. And don't tell me that you don't think strange things when you're only half awake! I was thinking about how nice it was to have weekends to sleep in, and how fortunate I am that I don't live in any of the not-too-distant eras in which people kept slaves or servants and never gave them a day off. Sometimes I don't like my job, but I can never complain that I don't get time off on weekends. Whatever I do during the week, those two days are mine to spend as I will.
Call me silly, but these reflections produced a sense of thankfulness in me, and I started talking to God and telling Him how much I appreciated these things: that I have a good job, that I was born when I was born, that I have free time to spend as I will, that I don't have to get up every morning of my life to wait hand-and-foot on people who don't appreciate me. And as I was talking to Him about these things, several other things came to mind that I am thankful for (without realizing it, most of the time), so I thanked Him for those. Then the conversation turned in other directions - a confession of weakness and then a request and then something else - and finally I fell asleep. It was nice to have those minutes with Him. It wasn't an earthshattering sense of Him being close (I've had that a number of times, and it's amazing!); it was more like that feeling of "comfortable" you get when you're hanging with an old friend with whom you are completely free to be yourself and you don't have to put up any kind of front.
Anyway, this experience got me thinking about prayer and all the things I was taught about prayer in my Bible school days, which naturally got me thinking about Donald Miller's distaste for the Christian use of religious formulas. I was always taught that the Lord's Prayer (found in the gospels) was to be used like a model (a.k.a. formula) for how God wanted us to pray. I think this is because Jesus tells the disciples as He's teaching it, "This then is how you should pray..." But leave it to us to fuck it up and miss the point entirely. Rather than looking at the simplicity of the prayer (no big fancy words to impress God, no silly repetitions, no endless droning), we say, "Aha! He gave us a formula. Let us look closer at this prayer to discern the pattern He wants us to use. And if we use it, God will hear us better and answer us more quickly. And if we tack on "in the name of Jesus" at the end, He'll be even happier!" (LOL. To understand that last comment, you must read my earlier post "Pagan Practices.")
I remember being taught this formula and wondering if God had really been hearing my prayers all those years I hadn't used it. I remember making sure I started every prayer off with praise and thanksgiving, even if I had to come up with an insincere "thank you" that I didn't really feel at the moment, and all because I had been convinced that God would like my prayers better if I told Him how great He was before I launched in. (To tell you the truth, that kind of thinking makes God sound rather like an egomaniac looking for His next stroking, which He's not!)
This morning's prayer happened to start with thanksgiving, but it wasn't because I was keeping in step with the formula. That happened to be the predominant emotion I wanted to share with God at the time. At other times there are no feelings of thanksgiving, so I don't offer insincere "You're so great!" remarks because I think I have to. I come and I open up my heart and talk to Him about whatever I'm feeling. I ditch the trappings and traditions in order to treat Him like the father He says He is to me. And let me tell you something, my earthly father wouldn't appreciate it at all if I came to him with formulas, so why would the God who says He is my Father in heaven? If anything, I think formulas interfere with and hinder relationship, and being a Christ follower is nothing if not about relationship.
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I think we turn to formulas when we do not really believe God loves us no matter what. We need to formula to be reassured. I prayed properly therefore God loves me and will hear the prayer. It takes all the worry out of it and reduces the relationship to a simple mathematical formula with easy answers, when in fact the answers are not easy. If I did not get what I prayed for it is much easier to say it is because I did not follow the formula rather than have to struggle with questions like: Is it that God does not want me to have that? If so why not? Was it random chance that prevented it? Was God even listening to the prayer? Those are the tough questions that will ultimately lead us closer to a true relationship, but they are difficult and many times we want to shy away from them.
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