Pray the Cliche...

Have you ever stopped to think about what we pray in church?  It's almost as if there is a prescribed way to pray when we our in church.  Somehow, our brain tingles a little bit differently, our vocabulary sounds like the seventh page of the SAT's, and our voice takes on a sort of Shakespearian tone.  Sounds familiar doesn't it?  One thing is for sure when we pray in church...We certainly pray the cliche.  

(clears throat, assumes perfect posture, bows head, and closes eyes)

"Dear Lord, be with us now in these moments because we know, Lord, that where two or three are gathered in Your name, there you are in there midst, Lord.  Just help me to let go and let God.  May I love the sinner  but hate the sin.  Help me to get right so I don't get left.  I mean, I've got to stand for something or I'll fall for anything.  I know you love me just as I am, but too much to leave me there.  Bring a fresh move of Your Spirit so all of us believers can stand in the gap as You raise up a new generation.  Yes, Lord, Your pain is definitely my gain.  Amen." ([re]UNDERSTANDING Prayer by Kyle Lake, pg. xxii)

Ouch.  That really hurts.  Especially since that is exactly what I have done from time to time in my life.  Whenever I am empty and void of true and honest communion with God, I can always pray the cliche.  I keep it in my back pocket in case I need it somewhere.  I can pull out the youth friendly version, the senior adult version, the suit and tie version, and the hurry-pray-before-somone-takes-a-bite-version!

What I have discovered in my up and down prayer life is that simple prayer goes a long way.  Take a look at the Lord's Prayer for instance.  It's about simple everyday needs.  It's about our place before God.  It's also about who God is and what he wants from us.  It is a plea to God to be faithful to his promise.  I have taken time the last few days to move deeper into the Lord's Prayer.  So far, I am stuck on the first two words - "Our Father."  There is so much richness in those two words that I have sat right in the midst of them this past week.  So many verses, emotions, feelings, remembrances have billowed out of my soul this week just in thinking of those two words.  I cannot tell you how much I have prayed those words over and over this past week.  And, I feel like my prayer life has grown tremendously.  It's as if those words of Jesus have now become the very echo of my soul, and they carry me.  Simply awesome!

But the journey to these two words has not been easy.  I've had to leave cliches, my favorite Christian phrases, and my prayer reflexes behind.  What has kept me from this journey?  I think my upbringing has scripted for me what the drama of my prayer life is supposed to be.  I'm supposed to pray at particular times, with particular words, and for particular things.  But this journey has moved me far beyond these lies.  Just like I can act like I'm supposed to for certain situations and people, I can pray like I'm supposed to for certain situations and people.  Somewhere along the way I was fed a lie.  It's a lie that tells me I'm supposed to have everything together before I pray.  I think this is a particularly big struggle for our teens.  Then I found freedom in prayer.  Richard Foster put it this way - "We pray by grace just as we are saved by grace.  God has a relationship with us despite our sinfulness, mixed motives, and selfish nature."

Over this past week, I have laid before God what is in me, not what ought to be in me.  I have learned prayer simply by praying.  I'll put it to you this way.  If you've got kids or have been a kid (are we missing anyone?) then at some point you created some pretty awful artwork.  But when you brought it home, your parents thought it was the greatest thing ever.  They put that junk all over the fridge removing any chance of your house ever being featured in Southern Living.  It was museum worthy to them, especially if it had anything to do with them or said "To: Mom" or "To: Dad," "From: Ross (insert your name or your child's here to make sense of this!)  It was better than anything they had ever seen.  Well if we go back to those first two words, "Our Father," then I suppose we are God's children.  I would imagine I have quite a few awful prayer drawings slapped up on God's fridge.  And because I put his name on them, I know he is a proud Father.  Not to mention I'm sure he's not worried about living anywhere in the southern vicinity, if you catch my drift.

The point is simple.  Simply pray, and pray simply.  Do an experiment with your teens or as a family.  Walk through the Lord's Prayer a couple words a week.  Meditate and talk together in the way Jesus taught us to pray.  I had plans for moving on next week, but I'm not sure I'm past "Our Father."