Prayer is not only difficult – like doing things with your left hand when you’re right-handed. It is also unlike most of what we do when we exercise our voice. Mostly we look for a reply when we speak. It’s called conversation. There are occasions when the event is hi-jacked and the exchange turns into a one-sided event. That is an offence against public decency. Offenders unload their word-hoard while the recipients remain tight-lipped. Yet that is often the seeming shape of prayer – a one-sided conversation, with men and women declaiming, and the listener (i.e. God) being expected (in anthropomorphic terms) to be all ears and no tongue. Or in other words prayer is a lopsided undertaking.
We have to acknowledge that prayer belongs with other types of one-sided conversation that are meaningful to the participants. People talk to their pets. If we restrict ourselves to cats and dogs rather than exotic creatures like chameleons and pythons, we know that this is not altogether a one-sided event. There is no reply but there is a response. The owner’s word-play may be accompanied by scratching or stroking, by eye-contact and gestures like picking up a lead. The response is unfailing. Watch the eyes. If we put ourselves in the position of the dog and imagine God in the position of pet-owner, we can understand the limitations of any conversation. Of course, God is far and away above any pet-owner.
There are other occasions when the voicing of words is meaningful even though there is no particular listener in mind. The full-throated singing of a national anthem before a rugby match, particularly a blood-thirsty song like the Marseillaise, is sufficient in itself. The haka adds ritual action to the words as the hearers are politely reminded of what is coming to them. Again, the participants relish the activity. They expect no more.
We are now coming close to the practice of worship – organised prayer, if you like. This has some remote similarity to what happens inside a football stadium and between pets and owners. Like fans and supporters, worshippers express their united commitment and enthusiasm in words. In the form of songs, we might add, if not in ritual actions like punching the air and strutting when a goal is scored. Worship and prayer are two aspects of the same thing. Like prayer, worship is not just asking for things. It is an expression of loyalty. It is also an attitude of mind, a readiness to entertain new possibilities.
Prayer overlaps with other activities, some good, some less good, some individual, some corporate – thinking, speculating, contemplating, nerving oneself, revising aims, reading, researching, day-dreaming. It can be said that prayer is a natural human occupation, even if it is not recognised as such. When it is said to be like breathing, it may just make us stop and consider that we may do more praying than we think.
And one other thing. God is not silent. He has spoken. That is why the Scriptures have such a prominent place in prayer and worship. That is why we have to be careful when we talk about lopsided prayer.
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