Malformed prayer

When we pray, there are many preconceived ideas about what is taking place. And I would argue, at least in the Western world, wrong preconceptions. Typically, when we pray, we are asking for things. Not necessarily bad things, selfish things or even physical things, but we are asking God to do or provide something that we think would be good or beneficial.  Does this not presuppose that we think we know what would be best or possibly good?

One needs to step back and honestly assess our position.  Almost all of us have been alive for less than 100 years, yet somehow, especially those of the 18-25 year range, seem to think that we know best.  Honestly, our exposure to reality, our experience with ourselves and with others and the volume of our knowledge is incredibly small.  When we honestly think about how small, insignificant and uninformed we actually are, how could we dare to think that we know best about anything?

The Orthodox position on prayer (the historical position) is radically different than what the Evangelical/Protestant world promotes.  Prayer is not an appeal to a divine Santa Claus. Prayer is not a casual chat with a buddy.  Prayer is learning to silence our ever busy, distracted minds and "listen" for the direction of the Holy Spirit.  It is bringing our mind into our hearts and simply listening. Ultimately, it is an appeal to God to have mercy on us.

We are so distracted, so temporally minded, so earthly, that we cannot even think straight, not to mention even pray "straight".  The "Jesus Prayer" has been a foundational standard for the Christian world for many centuries, some would argue even from the beginning of the church.  This is the place to start to learn how to pray.

Deciding

When one deeply examines the world of philosophical debate, it simply comes down to faith.  Yes, one can argue about a myriad of philosophical details, but beneath all of one’s philosophy is faith. Eventually, digging down deep enough and asking the right questions, we believe something or some things that we do not prove nor do we seek a proof, we simply believe them.  Some things (probably many things) are embraced at the presuppositional level and thus, not questioned.

What do we do with this?  The first thought, for me anyway, in response to this, is to recognize the futility of debate and argumentation.  If someone holds to view contrary to our own and they are someone who has worked through the many philosophical questions that plague certain people, then arguing those philosophical beliefs will lead to nowhere, as there are presuppositions underlying those beliefs, that need to be addressed first.

My second thought has to do with learning to think presuppositionally.  We must learn to think down deep. In other words, we have to learn to ask the questions that lie beneath and behind the philosophical argumentation that so often takes place.  We need to learn to identify and find the rationale for those questions, so that, when interacting with others, we can construct and direct conversation to a fruitful conclusion.  

In short, we must decide to believe.  The questions that lie at the bottom of who we are, do not have answers constructed from fine, logical argumentation.  We decide to believe. This is where prayer comes in. We can argue all we want (but shouldn’t) about philosophy. But it won’t go anywhere.  We must, instead, lead to the deep questions, with no answers, and then pray that God would reveal himself and the futility of life without God, to those with whom we interact.  

Only prayer can change a man’s heart.

What to do

It is the feeling of helplessness that is so bothersome.  The older I become, the more I realize just how powerless I am and how little I know.  As an idealistic youth and young man, the world was black and white.  What the pastor said in his weekly sermons were true and defensible. But now, as I have reached middle age, life is much more complex, every incomprehensible at times.  Sure, there is black and white, but the gray area in the middle continues to grow.  Circumstances change everything.
What then are we to do, when we are essentially powerless to really make any difference in the world around us?  Governments are corrupt, sex drives everything, people have become objects to be used and thrown away.  Abortion is common, abuse is common, euthanasia is common, neglect of reality and a focus on the temporal rules the day.
As I've mentioned in a previous post, the physical world around us, that everyone focuses on, to the neglect of the other 90% of reality, is painful to live in.  There is so much wrong, so much messed up, so much going the complete wrong direction, that I have to ask, "What to do?"
We cannot become fatalists, for we truly believe that prayer makes a difference.  We cannot simply stop caring, for we have loved ones that need us and that we need.  As Jesus said, "the poor you will always have with you."  So we have to get used to the idea of the persistent nature of evil and suffering.  As long as we are on this side of the final judgment, life is suffering.
The only answer I can offer, the only answer the church has to offer, is that of prayer and repentance. We pray for those in need and we strive after holiness, repenting as we go.

The superiority of ignorance

Good heavens, what would possess me to name a blog "that"?  It occurred to me, after reading another blog by Fr. Michael Gillis (see here), that there are several things in the Christian life that focus on and are built around ignorance, but in a good way.  Let me explain.
There are three tools that the church provides for us (among others) that really emphasize this idea of ignorance.  The first, almsgiving, is, contrary to the name, not just about giving money, but about giving mercy.  When we are merciful, we are being like God, for God is the ultimate example of mercy.  But when we are merciful, it needs to be done in secret. We do not want to be like the Pharisees who blew trumpets and drew attention to themselves, when they gave money to the poor. The glory that they received in doing so was the extent of the blessing they would receive for doing so.
When we give (mercy or money or whatever), we do, so that we draw no attention to ourselves, or, if attention is unavoidable, we downplay it without making a big scene.
The second, prayer, too should be done in secret.  As Jesus says in Matthew 6, when we pray, we are to go into secret and our Father will see us and our hearts.  This, as opposed to making a flamboyant scene, showing off how "eloquently" we can pray.  This sort of thing exposes a heart that is vain.  But of course, this does not exclude corporate prayer, which is, by definition, done in the presence of and with, others.  Again, the idea is to draw close to God and learn to focus our attention on him, without putting any emphasis upon ourselves.
The third, fasting, should be done without boasting.  The Bible is very clear about not making a show of ourselves when we fast.  We should not dress poorly, put on a miserable face and look pathetic.  Instead, we are to "in first century speak" put oil on our faces and appear happy.  We should not give off the appearance of "poor us, look how much we are suffering."
All three of these tools are not ends unto themselves, they are to be used to draw us closer to God, to make us more like God and learn to put our spiritual man in charge of our physical man.
All of these are done to the ignorance of others, as the goal is not to boost ourselves in others sight, but to grow in holiness.