Sara - Time With God
February 10th, 2009 by Nicholas Chorba
As a Christian I attended a private Ivy League - type school, where the only real option for fellowship was a charismatic prayer group. Many times in that group I had a very strong sense of God’s presence - a sense that has come and gone in the years since.
I didn’t grow up with the idea that God answers specific prayers, and I must say that whenever I heard of Christians praying for parking places and the like, it bugged me. But when my teenagers went away to college and got exposed to risky behaviors, I prayer very specific prayers of desperation in the early hours of the morning. As a parent, you read news reports of binge drinking and sex parties on campus, and you feel so helpless, wondering what your kids are doing. I sometimes think of mothers whose children have committed suicide. They prayed too. . . .
I’m trying to pray less “parently,” in other words, telling God what to do. Rather, I try to look behind the symtom of rebellion or risky behavior and ask God to help my children find better ways of finding meaning and of handling the stress in their lives.
I have had other serious emotional struggles with God, sometimes over personal issues like marriage, but also over politics, terrorist attacks, war, environmental destruction, those issues. The fact that God does not seem to answer the prayers of many people for peace and well-being probably ought to get us Christians way more upset.
I don’t really pray according to a formula, and I’ve never taken a class on centering prayer or meditation techniques. But I do see a spiritual director every six weeks or so. That keeps me accountable to a discipline, and it helps to have someone point out what may be God’s movement in my life. Otherwise I try to pray along with the flow of my life, reaching toward what seems usable, honest, meaningful, and even enjoyable. Something that makes me want to spend time with God.
While studying for a graduate degree, I often wondered how to integrate the academic work with God. I found a quote from Abraham Joshua Heschel which I propped up on my desk: “The school is a sanctuary . . . learning is a form of worship.” I see prayer not as a separate act, but as something intimate with my life. I pray in interludes of the day: the three-minute walk to my friend’s house, waiting in line, driving. Prayer is like exercise. I know it’s good for me and I benefit from it. Yet, as with exercise, I wish I did it more often. I know I would profit more.
Quoted from Philip Yancy’s book “Prayer: Does It Make a Difference?”, published by Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, 2006, pages 60-61.
I’m writing to offer you a free review copy of the “Fasting” by North Park University Professor Scot McKnight. It’s the newest book in the Ancient Practices series from publisher Thomas Nelson.
For a free review copy of “Fasting,” please reply with your preferred mailing address. Please also let me know if you would like the fourth book in the series — “Sabbath,” by Dan Allender — and I’ll send both.
Thomas Nelson offers an excerpt called “Fasting as Body Discipline” that provides an overview of fasts in the Jewish and Christian traditions, explains the differences between fasting and dieting, and discusses the problems of anorexia. You are free to reprint all or part of the excerpt on your site, if you want.
http://tinyurl.com/c6togl
With Thanks for Your Consideration,
TATYANA MESHCHERYAKOVA for Thomas Nelson, Inc.
I am very interested in the fasting books you recommended to sara, could you please let me know where they are available. I live in Australia.
Jenni b
I was just curious about what a spiritual director does? I agree with your thoughts on prayer. It is puzzling sometimes to understand why some prayers seem to be ignored. Yancey’s book is a good one.
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