Perspective

Happy 2011! For anyone who might read this, I hope your year is starting off well.

Over the Christmas break, I had the pleasure of seeing my great friends, Kurt and Tara. They live in Washington, D.C., so face time is a little harder to come by these days, and I always look forward to big holidays because it might mean that they will be in Rochester at Kurt's folks' house. Fortunately, they were there just after Christmas, so I got some time to hang with them, see their girls, and, as always, be impressed with how smart they are and how much they love Jesus.

We always have deep conversations, you know, the kind where you skip right the heart of the matter and say what's really on your mind. I love it. While we were talking one night, I was explaining that, even as a soon-to-be seminary graduate, I still wrestle with big questions of faith. I talked about how prayer often confuses me. I know prayer is a good thing (talking to God seems pretty amazing), and I know prayer is a big part of the Christian life (Jesus sure seemed to do it a lot), but how does it work? When I say to someone, "I'll pray for you," am I guaranteeing some outcome? Does the timing of my prayer have to match up with the concern I am bringing to God? Can a person pray retroactively? Is there a "right way" to pray to make supplications more effective? Is prayer about compelling God to act, or is it maybe more about just spending time talking with God? Do our prayers change God's mind, or through prayer, does God change our minds?

Just as the train was really leaving the station and I started in on the theological implications of prayer, Kurt stopped me. He said, "When you tell someone, 'I'll pray for you,' what you're really saying is, 'Today I'm going to talk with the Creator of the universe, who made everything, including human beings, and who loves us and has made Himself accessible to His creation to the point that we can have conversations with Him. When I talk with Him today, I'm going to talk to Him about you.'"

For anyone who knows Kurt (and for those who don't, I'll try my best to describe accurately), you know that there are times when he talks with a matter-of-fact tone by slowing down his words and speaking very clearly. It's that tone you often hear from professors and Nobel laureates and other people who are ridiculously intelligent. Kurt definitely has it, and I think he gets it from his dad. Anyway, it was that tone that Kurt used when he said, "When I talk with [God] today, I'm going to talk to Him about you."

What a simple, intimate thing to say. No guarantees, no magical formulas, no prescribed outcomes. No highfalutin language, no awkward platitudes, no empty Christianese. Just, "When I talk with God today, I'm going to talk to Him about you."

I like it, Kurt. Thanks for the perspective.