Prayer mirrors the gospel. In the gospel the Father takes us as we are and gives us his gift of salvation. In prayer the Father receives us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of help.

As we wait and pray God weaves his story and creates a wonder. Instead of drifting between comedy denial and tragedy reality we have a relationship with the living God who is intimately involved with the details of our worlds. We are learning to watch for the story to unfold to wait for the wonder.

Prayer is a moment of incarnation - God with us. God involved in the details of my life.

When confronted with suffering that wont go away or with even a minor problem we instinctively focus on what is missing...not on the Masters hand. Often when you think everything has gone wrong its just that youre in the middle of a story. If you watch the stories God is weaving in your life you... will begin to see the patterns. Youll become a poet sensitive to your Fathers voice.

Prayer is asking God to incarnate to get dirty in your life. Yes the eternal God scrubs floors. For sure we know he washes feet. So take Jesus at his word. Ask him. Tell him what you want. Get dirty. Write out your prayer requests dont mindlessly drift through life on the American narcotic of busyness. If you try to seize the day the day will eventually break you. Seize the corner of his garment and dont let go until he blesses you. He will reshape the day.

God is a person and his universe reflects his personhood. The closer something is to the character of God the more it reflects him and the less it can be measured. Things such as integrity beauty hope and love are all in the same category as prayer. You can tell their presence and even describe them but you cant define them simply because they are too close to Gods image.

Everything you do is connected to who you are as a person and in turn creates the person you are becoming. Everything you do affects those you love. All of life is covenant.Imbedded in the idea of prayer is a richly textured view of the world where all of life is organized around invisible bonds or covenants that knit us together. Instead of a fixed world we live in our Fathers world a world built for divine relationships between people where because of the Good News tragedies become comedies and hope is born.

Cynicism creates a numbness toward life.Cynicism begins with a wry assurance that everyone has an angle. Behind every silver lining is a cloud. The cynic is always observing critiquing but never engaging loving and hoping....To be cynical is to be distant. While offering a false intimacy of being in the know cynicism actually destroys intimacy. It leads to bitterness that can deaden and even destroy the spirit....Cynicism begins oddly enough with too much of the wrong kind of faith with naive optimism or foolish confidence. At first glance genuine faith and naive optimism appear identical since both foster confidence and hope.But the similarity is only surface deep.Genuine faith comes from knowing my heavenly Father loves enjoys and cares for me. Naive optimism is groundless. It is childlike trust without the loving Father....Optimism in the goodness of people collapses when it confronts the dark side of life....Shattered optimism sets us up for the fall into defeated weariness and eventually cynicism. Youd think it would just leave us less optimistic but we humans dont do neutral well. We go from seeing the bright side of everything to seeing the dark side of everything. We feel betrayed by life....The movement from naive optimism to cynicism is the new American journey. In naive optimism we dont need to pray because everything is under control. In cynicism we cant pray because everything out of control little is possible.With the Good Shepherd no longer leading us through the valley of the shadow of death we need something to maintain our sanity. Cynicisms ironic stance is a weak attempt to maintain a lighthearted equilibrium in a world gone mad....Without the Good Shepherd we are alone in a meaningless story. Weariness and fear leave us feeling overwhelmed unable to move. Cynicism leaves us doubting unable to dream. The combination shuts down our hearts and we just show up for life going through the motions.

Self-will and prayer are both ways of getting things done. At the center of self-will is me carving a world in my image but at the center of prayer is God carving me in his Sons image.

Sometimes when we say God is silent whats really going on is that he hasnt told the story the way we wanted it told. He will be silent when we want him to fill in the blanks of the story we are creating. But with his own stories the ones we live in he is seldom silent.