Realizing Harmony

What a fantastic message!

This morning at C3, we had the first in a several-week series of messages.  The series is called “Bodacious 80’s.”  I don’t know what Pastor Byron and the rest of the leadership team have stored up for us.  But this morning Pastor Byron talked about Prayer, and he had the band go retro with “Livin’ On A Prayer.”  (Although they started the service by having Josh Wilson play Guitar Hero – the intro to Guns ‘N Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” – and then have the rest of the band blend in and take over.  It was a pretty cool way to take us from NOW back to THEN.)

The music was fun, but the message… what can I say?  God was using Pastor Byron to really communicate His love and His desire to have us really talk with Him – to truly pray.

The thing that struck home the most with me was the analogy that talking with God is supposed to be like talking with your spouse.

Pastor Byron compared many typical prayers to talking with his wife, Angie.  “What if,” he said, “I got up every morning, got Angie’s attention, and then reeled off three or four standard requests then left for the day and never spoke to her again until that night, when I had one or two more standard phrases to repeat to her with included more requests.  And every day I did the same thing.  What would our relationship be like?”

I thought about that with my own wife.  If I did that it would make for some very rough times in short order.  And it probably wouldn’t be long before our marriage would be over.  Ouch!  Same thing would be true if I set the requests to poetry or said them in a “Ye Olde English” way and repeated the same things to her every day.  She might appreciate the effort at poetry or the translation into an old tongue, but she’d still miss true communication which is one of the bedrocks of realtionships.

I’ve heard sooo many people pray to God with pre-scripted rhymes or rote messages.  Other’s adopt a “King’s English” or “holy” vocabulary.  And still others get into this… I don’t know how to describe it other than to say it’s their own special “prayer language.”  And I’m not talking about those who speak in “tongues.” 

What I am talking about is prayers like, “Oh Lord, I just really want to just really pray that you would just really touch me, Lord, in a special way right now and that you would just really take the words ‘just’ and ‘really’ out of my prayer vocabulary.”  Or how about, “God, thank you, God, for today, God.  God, You’ve blessed us so much, God.  And God, we’re humbled, God, to come before You now, God, and worship You, God.”

Now, granted, those are perhaps (perhaps!) a bit over-the-top.  But I honestly have heard a few that are pretty close to that.  What’s wrong with that?  Nothing really, especially if that’s the way you normally talk with your closest friends and family.

Do you normally use words like “just” and “really” over, and over, and over again in normal conversation with your friends?  If so, then, go ahead and talk with God that way.

Do you normally remind your closest friends that you’re talking to them at the beginning and/or end of each sentence?  Or is it that you have to remind yourself that often who you’re talking with?  If so, then, of course, there’s nothing wrong with talking with God that way.

Even if you don’t normally talk with your friends or family that way, truly, God understands.  If you’re just meeting Him, or just getting to know Him, of course He’s patient and understanding.  He LOVES you!

But, if there’s such a difference in the way you talk with your friends and family, and the way you talk with God, maybe it’s appropriate to ask how close your relationship with God is.  As I just said, if your relationship is just getting started, then it’s not at all unusual to fumble and stumble a bit when talking with someone so AWESOME.  (I just think of how many people get nervous, and “forget how to talk” when they’re in the presence of a “great person” or one of their heroes.)  But those who’ve been growing closer to God, how about trying talking with God.

He’s big enough to hear your true words, thoughts, feelings.  Try reading Psalms – you’ll see David didn’t hold back; just laid everything out before God.  You can too.  And, as Margaret Becker says in her song, Honesty, off her Immigrant’s Daughter album, “God’s not afraid of your honesty.”

Lest you think I’m all high and mighty, thinking I’m somehow “better” than others in my prayer life…

I’m not.

I happen to have grown past the rote prayers, the longing to be able to speak “God’s language” (the king’s english), and the silly verbal “twitches” people go through when they are asked to pray publicly.

But I still have a looonnnggg way to go in my prayer life.  Sure, I can talk to God conversationally.  But, just as I ignore most all of my other friends too much, I tend to ignore God as well.  And I just don’t talk with Him anywhere near as often as I should want to want to.  And I really struggle with listening to Him.  I think I just lack the patience, and the quiet.  (I’ve too often got music playing in my head.  It’s not as bad as it once was, but it’s still there quite a bit.)

So, this morning’s message was one more encouragement by God (through Byron) that He wants me to talk with Him more – both in terms of time spent talking as well as frequency of conversations.