Reflection

Candles, Cakes, and Prayers: Believing what is Spoken

Reflections

Man-Praying

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Wishful thinking is at the heart of why we make a wish and blow out the candles on a birthday cake.  We wish as some might wish on a star or when an eyelash comes loose.  There is no foundation to any of these rituals that give us any believable hope in the wish actually coming true.  We take part in these traditions because they are amusing.  We do them with a smile and a laugh but with no actual hope invested in them.  These traditions are carefree and trivial.  With no genuine expectation of fulfillment, we are left rather indifferent to the success or failure of any of these wishes.  We expect them not to come true, but would love to be surprised by the random chance that they did.  But since we didn’t REALLY believe, we protect ourselves from being REALLY disappointed when nothing happens as a result. 

The difference, however, between birthday cakes and God is that the Bible promises that these prayers are not only heard but can be answered.  However, when prayers are unanswered, we experience the bitterness we discussed earlier in this series, the bitterness of prayers we assume to be unheard.  The absence of answers can be difficult to understand and harder to find any peace with, but as we learn more about how Jesus talked about prayer, we find that unanswered prayers do not necessarily mean prayers not heard, or the absence of care or love.

Belief in prayer is a two-fold understanding.  Belief in prayer does not simply mean that one believes that the prayers can be answered.  Believing in prayer means that there is a clear understanding that God hears our prayers, and plans to carry out his response with our best interests in mind. A believer’s prayer comes with faith that the prayer at hand can be answered.  However, this faith does not come out of a record of consistently answered prayers.

On the contrary, most people who pray throughout their lifetime will be left with a longer list of prayers left unanswered as opposed to the ones that were. Faith in prayer comes from an understanding of the one to whom we pray and his character: the character of God himself.  Understanding the one we send our prayers to is absolutely necessary for any faith in the prayer process to emerge and grow.  We people are limited creatures and cannot achieve everything.  But if we approach God in the same manner, ascribing a limited nature to Him, we will naturally doubt the prayers being made to begin with.  If there is no belief that God is exactly who he says he is then there is absolutely no hope whatsoever that anything close to impossible could become reality.  If the God of the Bible is a myth and a legend there is absolutely no difference praying at the bedside with hands clasped together than praying over a birthday cake while dawning a birthday hat.  The God of the Bible, who hears and desires to answer prayer, can only be revealed by the Spirit who testifies to the truth.  It is therefore open for everyone to experience, but not everyone is open in turn to the experience.

Upon finding confidence in the ability of God, one must understand how he desires to use his ability.  Many who have found faith in the God of the miraculous have ultimately been disappointed by God, due to a fundamental misunderstanding of his nature and approach to our prayers.  Many take a black-or-white approach to prayer.  For example, if I am suffering and I pray for the suffering to stop, I might suppose that if God is powerful enough to stop it he will, and if he cares for me enough, he will.  We found our understanding of prayer on a tight rope, allowing God just enough room to walk without losing his balance and falling.  From this perspective, suffering is merely “bad” and, therefore, the presence of a “good” and “loving” God who allows suffering to persist implies the complete absence of goodness and thus the absence of God. While the why and when of suffering will often be a mystery, the conclusion that God does not care is unjustifiable from the perspective of scripture.

Throughout the entire Bible, and specifically in the life and teachings of Jesus, God reaches out to people and cares for them in ways that define rationality.  There are many instances where Jesus heals an individual before they even ask for it or even imply belief in him, such as Luke 7:11-17, when Jesus raises the son of a widow from death to life. As the stories of Jesus’ healing are so numerous, this particular story is easily overlooked,especially due to the popularity of the resurrection of Lazarus. This smaller, but no less significant, display of Jesus’ power over death is passed over rather easily.

The miracle of Jesus overpowering even death is worthy of praise all on its own.  However, the more amazing aspect of this story is the lack of dialogue between the mother and Jesus.  We find no evidence that the mother spoke with Jesus, let alone placed faith in him at all.  What we do see is that Jesus felt compassion for the widow, and his heart “went out to her.”  It was out of this compassion that Jesus not only restored her son to life but simultaneously restored the life of this poor woman.  Upon reading this passage, we cannot conclude that Jesus came into the world simply to display power. The only remaining conclusion is that Jesus came into our world, with healing power, simply because he cared.

Candles, Cakes, and Prayers: Spoken but not Answered

Reflections

This is the latest installment in our ‘Candles, Cakes, and Prayers’ reflection series. For previous entries, go here.

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As we talked about a few weeks ago, the reason many people have so little faith in prayer is the absence of results.  We may read in the scriptures that God hears our prayers and is fully aware of our needs, however, with every need that we see go unaddressed or unanswered we lose hope in the process, simply because we have yet to see results.  While our first post concerned the doubt that anyone was at the receiving end of our prayers, this final point of doubt emanates from the perception that the figure at the receiving end exists, but doesn’t care or love.

As answers to our requests fail to appear, resentment toward this “God of Love” grows. When we don’t get answers we feel un-Loved, even foolish. As we see or hear of others receiving answers to their prayers, externally no different than the ones we offered, we may develop a suspicion of “favoritism” in regards to God and his “answers.”  The, “why not me?” question brings everything we once believed about God into question.

This is where we start to see the world in terms of “favorite children,” whose wishes are granted, versus “the other children,” who get nothing back. We begin to judge God, and eventually to absent ourselves from the dialogue of prayer altogether.  Due to the absence of results and the absence of “answers,” we can feel completely suspicious and bitter toward the act of prayer in general.  In the place of peace and clarity that prayer is supposed to provide are doubt, suspicion and anger.  Prayers made from this perspective become nothing more than birthday wishes, without the appeal of delicious cake to follow.

Candles, Cakes, and Prayers: Spoken but not Believed

Reflections

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Check the first two installments here and here. 

In most instances, when we made birthday wishes, there was always a flavor of impossibility to the wishes being made.  This was a moment to seize something that on any other day of the year would be truly out of reach.  This was the moment to wish for the most outrageous and most impossible dream.  No one ever wished for the cheapest pair of shoes. No, the correct wish was for the most expensive pair.  Don’t forget, these are birthday candles we’re talking about!

Making birthday wishes was the moment to request the unthinkable and most radical request imaginable.  However, over time we discovered that the reason that these wishes and dreams were out of reach in our minds, and why we chose to wish for them, was that they were out of reach in reality.  Although within us was the hope that something we wished for would come true, there eventually grew an acceptance that this dream would most likely never amount to more than a dream.

The Bible presents many instances where the impossible became possible through the power and will of God.  We read stories where people survived being thrown into fire or a lion’s den, and where entire bodies of water became separated upon the command of God. While these stories present great moments for awe and entertainment, the utter impossibility of these stories resign them, in our minds, to legends that could never and will never be seen in today’s world.  They are so unlikely that to hope in them is one thing, but to believe in them is something altogether different and altogether foolish.  Therefore, we continue to voice our desires and make our wishful prayers to a God up there, somewhere, while accepting that most desires and wishes will be out of the reach of even a God who claims to be able to do anything. So we find people mouthing prayers with no faith or belief in their fulfillment, or in the God whom they claim to address.

Thursday Reflection Series: Candles, Cakes, and Prayers

Reflections

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Some of my fondest childhood memories are of birthday parties.  Birthday parties were always exciting and joyful.  A birthday party was an isolated moment in time where, especially for the person whose birthday it was. Everything seemed to go just right.  On that one day you could eat all of the foods you ever dreamed of eating, you could play the games you wanted to play, and people would literally personally deliver you gifts.  For most of us this is the closest we would ever get to living like royalty.  In the middle of all of this impossible-becoming-possible birthday magic, we find one of the most central birthday traditions.  At the right moment, all activity built to a suspenseful crescendo, the all-important cake was finally presented to all of the awaiting guests and partygoers.

The ideal birthday cake would incorporate the passions, hobbies and personality of the recipient, carefully represented and etched out in the cake’s decoration. The cake would be a dream come true.  It’s no surprise that the core of the birthday cake tradition was intricately connected to dreams coming true.

Before the cutting and after the candle-lighting, the important moment arrived: the moment to make a wish and blow out the magic candles. This was the final step, before the entire party could proceed.  There seemed to be a holy, almost spiritual, reverence for this moment. Time stood still and breathing ceased, if only for a brief moment. There was a sense that all those present put some small hope in the chance that a dream might actually come true.  It’s easy, given the atmosphere of a birthday party, to almost give into the idea that if so many impossible things could be made possible already, why would it be unreasonable to think that one more thing would press the limits of this magical day?

As children, there is a true hope that blowing out birthday candles will lead to a miracle.  As a child this was not joke, fantasy or ritual.  As children, up until a certain point, we believed.

As we got older and the “magic” of birthdays and birthday parties was replaced by the somber realization that a birthday merely symbolized aging, the belief in the candles disappeared completely.  We began to see that we do not live in a world where dreams are fulfilled, that miracles are not commonplace.  Like children losing faith in birthday wishes, as we grow up,our faith in promises beyond reason is likewise dampened.

It is from a similar place that people today, Christian and non-Christian, view prayer.  For many, praying is nothing more than making birthday wishes via candles, nothing more than a silly superstition.

In this reflection series we will take a closer look at why many people have equated prayer with birthday wishes.  We’ll approach this discussion in two parts: three statements on the nature of doubt regarding prayer and three contrasting statements on the Biblical approach to prayer of trust and belief.

 

Three reasons why people associate praying to God in the same light as wishing on candles are:

 

Prayers spoken but not heard

Prayers spoken but not believed

Prayers spoken but not answered.

 

On the opposing side, three reasons why people believe in the power of praying to God are:

 

Prayers heard before spoken

Prayers that believe in what is spoken

Prayer answered in ways unspoken.

Join us on Thursdays as we reflect on prayer!

Previews and Promises: Wanting More

Reflections

This is our final post in the series Previews and Promises. For the rest of the series, click these links.

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A good movie preview will be so impressive that it will almost distract you from enjoying the movie that brought you to the theater in the first place. The preview will be tattooed in your mind and the daily countdown to the release date will pass ever so slowly. A good movie preview will always leave us wanting more.

The life of a disciple of Jesus Christ is a process of daily transformation. We often do not see ourselves progress, but, at various moments in our walk, we realize that something in us is changing or has already changed. There comes a point where reading the Sermon on the Mount no longer feels like a list of impossible demands placed upon our limited human hearts, but rather realistic expectations of a renewed heart. The more one becomes recreated in Christ through his sacrifice and grace the more one begins to reflect his nature.

The more we let Jesus into our lives, the more he is revealed in and through us. We are born again in him, and therefore we find unity in our character with his.  At this point we no longer view certain things in the same light as we used to. To begin with, troubles no longer seem like the end of the world. Our jobs cease to define us.  Our relationships cease to guide us.  Our money ceases to control us. The more we become privy to the foretastes of heaven the more we realize that all earthly things do pass away but the joys of heaven are ongoing, without end. As we walk deeper into this new life and existence in the spirit, there emerges a push and pull on the heart of two very different worlds.  While we value the time and opportunities God has prepared for us in this world, we anxiously anticipate finally seeing and being with the Lord. Paul puts it perfectly in his letter to the Philippians:

22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me. (Philippians 1:22-26)

The words “death” and “the end” loom over our lives, applying pressure in one direction or another. We know how fragile this life is, and how with each passing day we inch closer to the end and further from the beginning. Many people are scared of death. This fear is completely understandable. For most of us, life is enjoyable, but perhaps more than that, it is known. Death is an end we know nothing about.  We never like to see the end of something familiar and good and death signals such an end. With the knowledge of death constantly looming overhead, we feel pressure to achieve or become something in the time we have left. It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that breaks that chain.

Jesus proclaims that to believe in him is to have life, not death. And in his words we come to the understanding that this life is simply a preview for something else, something wonderful and confidently promised and assured. Whenever Jesus speaks about heaven in the Gospels, he always says that it is “like” something. The reason he teaches about heaven in this way is because to describe heaven accurately to a human mind is to be describing something completely unimaginable, incomprehensible and impossible for a human mind to fully understand. He uses the word “like” is because it is “like” nothing else we totally know of yet.  Therefore, there exists no true comparison for us to appropriately use.

In his brief, powerful dialogue with the thief hanging next to him on the Cross, Jesus clearly believed in the place he so confidently promised to lead the man after their suffering was to end.  Jesus described it as “paradise,” and so we must believe it to be, a place of life in Jesus that does not come to an end. Forever enjoying the presence of the Savior. For the Christian, this desire for Heaven isn’t about what we will get or see or do there, but about knowing Jesus completely. This process begins here in this life, but not until Heaven will all the work of God in us be made complete.