The Road To: Answers
The Road to: Answers
Continuing with our metaphor of a Road, is prayer a “road?” Is it the yes/no answers or is it the process? Prayers can change us, change our destination, change how we “drive,” change the destination we expect. Do your prayers change you? In what way? Is it just the outcome ( i.e., yes or no answers or non-answers)? Or, is it the process (the “Road”)?
Prayer does not change God,
but changes him who prays.
Soren Kierkegaard
If a prayer is answered, we offer thanks and celebrate the answer – assuming it is what we prayed for. Or, if it is an answer and not really the answer we had hoped for, it’s still an answer. In that instance, have you considered what the answer means on a deeper level? If our prayer request is time-dependent, do we understand a delayed answer? Think about a time when you requested something in prayer and didn’t get an immediate answer. Is that still an answer?
There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Prayer is a journey – a road if you like. Applying Bonhoeffer’s quote to prayer, can we conclude that the experience of prayer and answers or non-answers do hold a deeper significance that we may not have thought about – if we take the time to assess it? What do you think?
In keeping with our metaphor of a road – consider this quote from Corrie ten Boom. Who? I had never heard of her until I did some research.
Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?
Corrie ten Boom
Cornelia Arnolda Johanna "Corrie" ten Boom (15 April 1892[1] – 15 April 1983) was a Dutch watchmaker and later a Christian writer and public speaker, who worked with her father, Casper ten Boom, her sister Betsie ten Boom and other family members to help many Jewish people escape from the Nazis during the Holocaust in World War II by hiding them in her home. They were caught, and she was arrested and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Source: Wikipedia
Corrie ten Boom was the first female watchmaker in the Netherlands. She died in 1982 in Pasadena, California. She was knighted by the Queen of the Netherlands. She has a very interesting story. Check it out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrie_ten_Boom
What does Corrie’s quote mean to you?
Here’s another interesting thought along our road to answers/or non-answers.
Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to his voice in the depths of our hearts.
Mother Teresa
A classic hymn gives us guidance for the Road, and hope of “finding” our way.
Joseph M. Scriven , an Irish immigrant to Canada, wrote this text near Port Hope, Ontario, in 1855 . . . This hymn was never intended to be seen. It was discovered by ". . . A neighbor, sitting with him in his illness [at the end of his life], happened upon a manuscript of 'What a Friend we have in Jesus.' Reading it with great delight, and questioning Mr. Scriven about it, Scriven said he had composed it for his mother, to comfort her in a time of special sorrow, not intending anyone else should see it." Source: hymnary.org
What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
. . . Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he'll take and shield you;
you will find a solace there.
Praying for you,
PB
Community Presbyterian Church
32202 Del Obispo
San Juan Capistrano. CA 92675
949-493-1502
info@sjcpres.org