A Little Lewis, Just The Beginning
I declared here, my word for the year is "pray". With that being said I set about my business in studying this word and attempting to have a better understanding of it. So as I've been known to do I ordered a few books on the subject. Just a few. The first to arrive was C.S. Lewis', "Letters to Malcolm". It is a collection of letters between Lewis and a friend I presume to be named Malcolm. Their discourse is mostly intellectual, interspersed with some comic relief and rib jabbing, if you will. And when allowed some profound observations on the church then, that are applicable today, forty years later. Mainly the dialogue centers around the art of praying, the standards, methods and the like. Is it an art form? Or a constant state of conversation, petition and penance between the Almighty and oneself?
That is where I am. Not even one chapter in and my hand was pen laden and underlining like mad. Making notes in the margin. Rethinking and reevaluating the state of my prayer life as it stands today. This bold statement made by Lewis has me particularly thoughtful this afternoon, "We want to know not how we should pray if we were perfect but how we should pray being as we are now." Exactly.
Such a broad subject, one's prayer life. Yet there is much obedience entangled with it. The acknowledgement of being known, of presenting our requests, our confessions and unveiling the state of our heart. All the while being mindful that all of this is being offered to an omniscient God who is perfectly aware. Even what lies in the "secret" places of our hearts. Which is why I long to pray now, as I am, not how I think I should be. Not living up to my own displaced expectations of what is acceptable. Simply coming before the Lord as a servant, bearing all. Despite His holiness and because of it.
These intellectual and deeply spiritual thoughts on prayer life are ones I'm just delving into. I have much to learn. So I'll keep reading and sharing and studying. And of course praying as I go. For now though, I will leave you with this.
" We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us."
C.S. Lewis, "Letters to Malcolm"
That is where I am. Not even one chapter in and my hand was pen laden and underlining like mad. Making notes in the margin. Rethinking and reevaluating the state of my prayer life as it stands today. This bold statement made by Lewis has me particularly thoughtful this afternoon, "We want to know not how we should pray if we were perfect but how we should pray being as we are now." Exactly.
Such a broad subject, one's prayer life. Yet there is much obedience entangled with it. The acknowledgement of being known, of presenting our requests, our confessions and unveiling the state of our heart. All the while being mindful that all of this is being offered to an omniscient God who is perfectly aware. Even what lies in the "secret" places of our hearts. Which is why I long to pray now, as I am, not how I think I should be. Not living up to my own displaced expectations of what is acceptable. Simply coming before the Lord as a servant, bearing all. Despite His holiness and because of it.
These intellectual and deeply spiritual thoughts on prayer life are ones I'm just delving into. I have much to learn. So I'll keep reading and sharing and studying. And of course praying as I go. For now though, I will leave you with this.
" We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us."
C.S. Lewis, "Letters to Malcolm"
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