What Is Prayer? (1) It’s Like Gravity
Prayer is an example of Christian truth – it is true “all the way down.” Being true at one level, it is true at all levels, but it is not the same at each level.
Consider gravity: a child of three can comprehend that if he drops a toy, it falls to the ground; if he throws the toy up into the air, it goes up and then down. Without any comprehension of how gravity works, he can have many hours of fun tossing, bouncing, and throwing balls.
A mathematician can work out the equations that describe the effects of gravity on everything from rubber balls to entire galaxies. On the basis of minute calculations and sophisticated mathematics, a team of dedicated scientists and engineers can send a rocket soaring out of the confines of Earth’s gravity. The child’s toss of the ball is subsumed within the launch of the rocket, implied in it.
Prayer is like that. A child of three can, in simplicity and total sincerity, speak to Jesus. Holy men and women can explore depths of prayer as it takes them into ever-deeper communion with God. Prayer is something that the newest, rawest Christian can do, and it is also a lifelong journey, going ever deeper into the heart of the mystery that is our Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
No one expects the child to understand the mathematics that the scientist understands; in that same way, the beginning Christian should not and need not expect to immediately be able to pray with the depth of a mature Christian. Nor does every Christian grow up to be the praying equivalent of a rocket scientist: as St Paul explains, we all have different gifts in the Body of Christ. But we would look askance at someone who, growing up and attending high school and college, persisted in staying at a three-year-old’s understanding of math. Rightly, we expect each person to learn enough mathematics to function at an adult level – to pay his or her bills, at the least! Prayer is what it is, regardless of our level of understanding of it, but we ought to seek to grow in that understanding the best of our ability.
In this way, prayer is like gravity.
But in another, much more important way, prayer is nothing like gravity.
Prayer is communication: we address our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As we enter more deeply into the mystery of prayer, we learn and grow, but not in a mechanical sense of learning more facts about God or in facility in manipulating information about Him. Not at all! As we enter more deeply into the life of prayer, we come to know Him more fully – to know Him, not to know about Him. To that joyful increase in knowledge there is no end. When we love someone, we continue to get to know that person all our lives. Shared experiences, shared concerns, over a lifetime draw us closer and closer to that person – not in the sense of a gathering of facts, but in the sense of a deepening of connection. If we never talk to a friend, that relationship remains just a potential; it is the act of communication and the sharing of experiences that truly makes the relationship all that it is meant to be.
Prayer is something that a child can do, that the newest Christian can do – but the joy of it is that the depths of prayer are inexhaustible. We can always seek to know God more fully, to freely share more of our selves with Him – but this doesn’t happen automatically.
I find it very easy to just learn more about God, and harder to reach out to include Him in my life. It is easy to read books about prayer, harder to stretch and grow in prayer. Every time I do stretch to pray more, I am rewarded by growth in my relationship with Him – although, to be honest, not always in the way that I expected or wanted. I have to start somewhere, even if it is just the desire for a deeper relationship with Him – or the desire to have that desire. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner!
Dear readers, what have been your experiences with moving forward in prayer?
Related posts:
- What Is Prayer? (3) Why Bother?
- What Is Prayer? (2): God Is Not a Vending Machine
- Listening to God
- Wrestling with Contemplative Prayer
- The Personhood of God
One Response to “What Is Prayer? (1) It’s Like Gravity”
Dr Holly Ordway came to Christ through reason, in the pursuit of truth. "In your hearts honor Christ as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 15).
She writes about her journey from atheism to orthodox Christian faith in her book "Not God's Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith" (Moody Publishers).
This is a wonderful post!
When I first came to know Christ about six years ago, I knew very little about prayer, and I was not attending any church regularly. I did read the New Testament, and I found myself having conversations with God and telling Him my needs as well as offering Him praise. But I had no idea that the Psalms could be used for prayer, and I had no idea how to go deeper into prayer. When I gave my life to Christ, I was also flooded with a rush of happy emotions, but sadly those emotions faded–and I didn’t know how to deal with that. I found myself slowly slipping away.
It was only upon attending an Orthodox Church several years ago that my faith renewed itself. Since I converted to Orthodoxy a little over two years ago, I have started to plumb the depths of prayer (but I still know so very little!). I take comfort in the prayers that the Church offers through some of the saints, and I take comfort in saying the Lord’s Prayer. I also now find the Psalms to be a source of comfort and joy. When I pray the Psalms, not only am I praying the words of Jesus and David, but I am also finding words for my own needs. In addition, I have taken great solace in some of the words of Christ in the gospels, and those words have comforted me in some of my darker periods. And I also am learning to sit still and meditate on what I read in Scripture and to say the Jesus Prayer.
Last, I have found that my prayers do not always elicit warm and happy emotions. Sometimes I don’t feel like praying, yet I still do pray because I know that a life in Christ is not based on how close I feel to God–and I know that the many of the Psalms express the emotions of those who feel a distance from God.
I think ultimately my prayer life has showed me that I am utterly and completely dependent on God (and though I intellectually knew that for a long time, it has taken certain life experiences and moving through those experiences in prayer to teach me that).