prayer...

so my mom reads when she is in the bathtub...so as i was brushing my teeth one of her books cought my eye, it's called Talking in the Dark by Steve Harper. i picked it up and brought it back to my room and started to read it and within the first 5 pages i found so many quotes and phrases that felt that they were written for me...so here are some of them when some of my thoughts with them, hopefully i will be able to finish it and the list will only get longer...

*the first sentence of the whole book...life doesn't make sense. no matter how hard we try to make it so, it doesn't. no matter how much we want everything to turn out okay, it doesn't always. bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. that's the way it is. if we are religious, prayer gets mixed into the mystery and the frustration of that reality. sometimes we can't tell what difference prayer is making. even though we pray, life fails short of our sense of justice and cry for mercy. this quote is almost like a slap in the face to wake up to reality. it's completly true, life really doesn't make sense and it never will until we are up in heaven where, hopefully, everything makes complete sense! as christians, we have to understand that life sucks, it's not always easy and pretty, as the phrase goes-shit happens-and it happens to anyone and everyone. good things will always happen to bad people and vice versa it's just a fact of life and it's what makes the good times even better, without the rain there would be no rainbow!

*4 questions he says to ask about a prayer-specifically one that has been written down...1. what picture of God comes throught in the prayer? 2. what picture of yourself do you see in this prayer? 3. how does the church show up in this prayer? 4. what are the main emotions expressed? these 4 questions confused me a little when i first read them, however when i began to reread them and attempt to place them along with a prayer they become understandable and easily placed into a daily prayer life and they can really focus a prayer on what prayer really is all about, it's about having that relationship with God and putting all the trust in Him and that He will do what is right for each of us...

*let's face it: the number one problem we have with prayer is God. this quote as much as i hate to admit it is absolutly true. in the following paragraphs he talks about how we are too quick to just blam God with things don't happen the way we want them to. we ask for things and they don't happen then an dthere, or if something happens, they don't happen the way we want them to. when things get rough we act like "good christians" and run to God and pray to Him, but when things don't happen the way we want them to we are quick to blame and get angry when all we should continue to do is pray and trust that things happen for a reason...

*because we are praying and trusting an invisible God we must learn to accept that not everythign will have the answers that we want...we must accept that there are certain mysteries and there will always be those mysteries...he gives 4 questions that will never be answered fully...1. why are some people healed while others aren't? 2. why do soldiers get killed the day before they are supposed to return home? (or at all?) 3. why does a young person die in an accident during a mission trip? (or at all?) 4. why does one person run late and miss boarding a plane that crashes, killing everyone else on board? these are just 4 questions...if i sat here i could come up with a huge list and it would be a very emotional and detailed list of why this and why that...and the only response to all of them is the same that i said before...everything happens for a reason. there can't be rainbows without the rain...there can't be good times without the bad and as christians we just have to learn to let go and let god. this phrase is one of my favorites and i have used it before and will continue to use it.

*we practice imperfect prayer in a fallen world~our world sucks, things happen, we struggle each day to try to be the best possible christian as possible and some days it just doesn't happen, we are not perfect in anything, even talking with God, we pray in a way that we think is best, we pray for th wrong reasons sometimes, we pray for the wrong things sometime...and because we live in the world that we live in we will always practice imperfect prayer...it will only become perfect when we get to heaven and sit next to God will our prayer become perfect along with everything else...perfection is only then.

the book goes on and on and i haven't gotten to read it yet i hope to be able to read it and possibly post some more quotes and parts of it...