Chasing the wind.

Men or women -- which is better off single?
Can you lose your salvation once you've gained it? Is salvation permanent?
The Deceitfulness of Sin: Realizing more and more my own wickedness
Three Christian men protested a Hindu prayer in the Senate
Should prostitution be legal? Should we legislate morality?
Are men predestined or is this whole thing a shooting match?
Are men totally depraved or partially depraved?
Are men capable of desiring God even before salvation?


Such is the list of current topics that run on the board I moderate. It's disconcerting how easily wearied I am by such subjects, especially given I used to argue in my sleep just for amusement. Odd how the older I am the less amused I am.

Then, I'm so tired these days, it could just be lack of energy and coherence. I find it mildly disturbing that the better part of my life has been spent with much belief and much thinking and saying, but very little doing.

Oh, sure, I can burn myself out on church life just as quickly -- and possibly more quickly -- as anyone. There are only so many hours in a day, and even if you devote your whole self, you can only do so much before you just pour yourself out and die.

Honestly? Who cares when the world is ending when I can think of a dozen lives in turmoil? Why are we so bothered at the thought of being muzzled as Christians when most of us still consider praying, going to church, and reading our Bibles every day a chore (all of which consists, at most, of an hour a week for one and three hours a week for the other two)?

Who really cares how sin entered the world or where its origins came from? In the end, it's here, and it's enslaving, deceiving, and killing all of us very slowly; and even if God created evil and sin, he's the author of everything and this is the way the world is.

So maybe I'm feeling too much like Solomon tonight, but, really, I'm no longer concerned with the difference between "partly depraved" and "totally depraved." Depraved is depraved, just like a half-truth is still a lie.

And don't tell me they aren't, in the end, the same thing. Either something is good, or it is evil.

I digress.

Maybe I don't expect non-Christians to behave like Christians, and maybe I just don't expect Christians to be perfect. Maybe I expect too little of people. Or too much. It likely depends.

The truth is, and in saying this I make myself a hypocrite, the end of the matter is to love God and keep his commands, by whatever means possible. All else is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

I guess I'm just weary of all the bickering, of hair-splitting and semantics. One of my new goals, methinks, is to visit as many different church denominations just to visit, just to attend the body elsewhere. Or rather, it should be one of my goals.

In the end, God is sovereign, and he does as pleases him. His grace is terrifying; his law beautiful. His mercy is never-ending, and his justice is true. In the end, each man dies for his own sins, and each man is saved by turning his eyes to the Cross and dying to himself, so that he is made alive in the Son.

In the end, we remain in the Shadowlands for no other purpose than to know God and make him known.

And, in the end, our great golden warrior king will return leading captives in his train and riding a white horse bearing his name; and in the end we'll celebrate and sing and dance; we'll eat and drink and forevermore know the splendor of his majesty.

So, while we wait here, beneath the sun, lingering still among these ceaseless shadows, what shall we say but to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love everyone else as we do our own selves.

Consider: If we are the salt of the earth, then have we lost our flavor? If we are the salt of the earth, what does t hat entail? And if we are the light of the world, then where is our flickering fire?

"Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in all the earth."

How now shall we pray?

Someone asked me awhile back about whether or not it's okay to pray the Lord's Prayer, and that got into "how do we pray?" (as well as a few other things that don't have relevance here).

So anyway, the kid asked if it was okay to pray pre-written prayers or prayers out of Scripture (this is a younger crowd than ours, and not much for debate).

I said:

No, it isn't a sin to read Scripture as your prayers, anymore than it is to quote a poem or hum a song. I do so quite often, actually, as often a song or portion of Scripture more accurately says what's buried deep, deep inside.

Jesus just didn't want us getting the impression that reciting Psalm 51 a certain number of times, or making our prayers a certain length, or praying a particular way, is what works. He isn't a math formula or a vending machine.

I mean, "God, I'm ticked" works just as well as the entire book of Lamentations, and "God, help me" works as well as some ornate, fancy things. To be honest, sometimes I never get beyond "Dear God," because the emotion is too strong for anything else.

But sometimes words won't come. Sometimes all I can come up with are the lyrics to a song I may not even know all of...and turn it on repeat. Sometimes Psalm 139 is all my heart can muster.

It just doesn't matter.

I've always been a bit leery of asking people about their prayer life, primarily because it seemed hypocritical, and secondarily because it seemed the same as asking a newly-wed couple about their sex life.

Yes, I know it's weird. But in my mind, those moments are meant to be intimate and private. Yes, it happens, and, no, it's none of your business.

But maybe I'm wrong, because people around me have been talking a lot about prayer these days: How to pray, what to pray, what not to pray, why pray, etc.

So I'm asking, and, despite the awkwardness of a couple paragraphs up, expecting an answer.

What do you think?

Why pray?

How do you pray?

How should we pray?

Better yet, what is and isn't appropriate?


I should likely clarify what I mean by "inappropriate." Yes, I meant in the kinds of things we bring before God.

However, let's be more specific.

For example, I spent months railing at the heavens while my roommate was sleeping. At one point I told him just to kill me and take me home -- do anything to me but make me stay the way I was.

Then there's more the Screwtape Letters approach, where Screwtape discusses the actual ritual of our prayers. You know what I mean: kneel or stand, eyes open or closed, over coffee or completely without external comforts...in solitude or in a crowd?

I was thinking once: How can I possibly do in public what I don't in private? See, I rarely pray out loud in private. In fact, half the time I read Scripture, journal, or sit in utter quiet.

If that is how I pray, it may be no wonder my family is baffled that I can't utter six words over a meal.

More to the point, is that necessarily good? Or should my mouth be able to keep up with my pen? (That would be a feat.)

Or rather, is it good to only have one method of prayer? Or is there any real "method" to it? (I realize some of this is rhetorical, but I wish for the thread to live a nice life.)

So talk to me. I've been reading a Jewish prayer book my mom and sister found and gave me once. What of that?