A Gardener’s Gospel - Week 14
Well I’m back from holiday to a disappointingly patchy lawn. If you remember, the morning before I dashed off, I did a manic repair job: spreading compost and scattering seed. The instructions on the box said: guaranteed growth in seven days. Mmmm, should I ask for my money back? There’s definitely been growth, but in the wrong places. The existing tufts have sprouted up and now look a bit like Andre Agassi with a comb-over. I suspected this might happen; but I hoped it wouldn’t. I realised that I hadn’t prepared the soil as well as I should have, but with limited time, I prayed that what I did would be enough. It wasn’t.
Magical thinking
My prayer life is like that sometimes. I read verses in the Bible such as ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed you could tell this mountain to move and it would,’ and ‘whatever you ask in my name will be given to you.’ My faith stirs and I bring those impossible mountains to God – my mother to be healed, my brother to be saved, a missing child to be found. I close my eyes like a child myself then open them again in the hope of seeing a miracle. But more often than not, I’m disappointed.
The Christian psychologist, M. Scott Peck, calls this ‘magical thinking’ and, in his book The Road Less Travelled cites it as a sign of emotional and spiritual immaturity. When I first read that I thought Peck was denying the power of faith, but as I’ve grown older, I realise that he is right.
Abracadabra shazam!
When prayer is simply a reciting of a formula: ‘God said it, I believe it, He’ll do it,’ it is in danger of becoming nothing more than the recipe for a magic potion – abracadabra shazam! We wave our magic wand (or the wand we believe God has given us) and expect a miracle to take place before our eyes. And when it doesn’t happen, there are only two possible answers, either I didn’t cast the spell well enough, or God didn’t live up to His part of the bargain.
The Entitlement Culture
I once wrote an article for a Christian magazine called The Spirit of Entitlement. In it, I recounted the story of a young man who was in my Christian Union group at university. Like Luther on the Wittenberg door, he pinned his reasons for what he believed about God, but unlike Luther, his were reasons why he no longer believed in God. He said:
My prayers have not been answered. The promises I believed in have not come to pass. There are only two possible conclusions: either there’s something wrong with me or there’s something wrong with God. I know that I’ve done everything I can, so I’ve kept up my side of the bargain, but God has not come through on His. I can only conclude that God has lied, and seeing God can’t lie, this leads me to the inevitable conclusion that He cannot really exist.
This young man graduated soon after that, and I have no idea what happened to him. I can only pray that he realises there was a third conclusion he didn’t consider: that his understanding of God’s promises might have been wrong. He believed he was entitled to certain things that should have been delivered in a pre-determined way – new growth guaranteed in seven days.
Praying outside of the box
But what if God wants us to grow in a different direction than that for which we prayed. What if the method we think He will use is not the one ‘on the box’. What if the answers to our prayers clash with the answers to someone else’s. So many what ifs. But here’s another one:
What if prayer is not so much a wish list as a love letter to the giver of all good things? We can only say a prayer has not ‘worked’ if the only outcome we recognise is the one on the box. And yet, at times, God does answer prayers in ways we hope for. I asked for a house of my own: I now have one. I yearned for a husband and now he’s here. There were jobs I wanted that I was given – but many others that I did not get.
We so easily forget that God answers prayers according to His will, not ours. If what we ask is in line with what He has already determined is right for us (note, not necessarily nice for us), the prayer will be answered. But I’m in danger of slipping into formulaic thinking once again. Prayer is about so much more than getting what we want.
Getting to know the Gardener
Prayer is conversation. Prayer is relationship. Prayer is a means of growth and getting to know the Great Gardener. If we know Him or ourselves better after we have prayed then it’s really worked. If we spend more time getting to know Him through prayer then we may have a glimpse of what His will for us might be. Abracadabra shazam!
This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him.
1 John 5:14-15
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Welcome to my site - I'm Fiona Veitch Smith, a freelance journalist, author, playwright and writing teacher. This site contains thoughts and articles I've written on a range of topics. I hope you find them useful.
ooh I loved this one …but I want to add that I think we also don’t persevere enough in prayer. Whoever said ‘faith’ was instant anyway…I find it sometimes takes a lot of praying to move from a position of need to a inner revelation of faith, of God’s ability and willingness to act according to His Word. I see this especially with healing…people pray…nothign happened …oh well. This shows little compassion or willingness to sacrifice on behalf of the sick person. I think we would see more healings if we saw more prevailing prayer…not that that would be a magic formula either..but there’s something in being willing to ‘put in the time reaching God about the matter and hearing what he has to say about it.”
Gill
Good point Gill. It’s in the returning to God time and time again that we get to know Him and as you say being an act of sacrifice on our part on behalf of someone else. Thanks for the insight and thanks for stopping by.
Hi Fiona,
Nice post. The ‘magical thinking’ issue is a big one, pastorally. I suspect it’s connected with immaturity and with a consumerist attitude to faith. Shalom, not shazam, I guess.
Shalom to you too, Dave
It’s really hard when there is something you desperately want and think you NEED in your life but God doesn’t seem to be answering. But you are right - one person’s prayer answered could mean something negative to another person. How right that we should find what is good for us by talking to God. I am discovering this more and more through Spiritual Direction after years of formula prayer and the growth is good. Nice one Fiona!
Hi Karen, thanks for stopping by. I suppose I should point out in case some people take offence that by formulaic prayer I don’t mean liturgical prayer - sometimes there can be great freedom in praying a liturgy.
This is really a challenging topic for me, but listened to a sermon lately based on Isaiah 58. What became very apparent to me was when we cry out to God, yet ignore what lies on our doorstep, God won’t hear our prayers. For when we are not attending to the community and injustice that is all around us we become insular and self serving and very little of what we do is in God’s will.
that is a sobering thought Karen. Speaking as a person who tends to gravitate towards the ‘insular’ as you so well put it, I need to make sure I’m not demanding something of God that I’m not prepared to do myself. Thank you.
Dave Faulkner - you are right! The problem with prayer as with so much else (the ‘Christian’ music and book industries for instance) is the ‘consumerist attitude’.
Thanks, Nick! Consumerism permeates religious faith, and not only in the literal selling of goods, such as the music and book industries, although you are right there. I recall seeing a book being flogged (sorry, ‘promoted’) at a bookstall with the tag, ‘This indispensable book’. I thought only one book qualified for that description.
However, we are consumerist in our view of church, for example. If church doesn’t give me what I want or demand, I’ll complain and/or go elsewhere. There is a true story of the boy who asked his Dad, ‘Which brand is our church?’
Thanks again for raising the subject, Fiona.
Is this where Nick admits he runs a book shop?
While the brand story is funny, I’m not completely against the concept of denominations. Some people are more naturally ‘at home’ with certain ‘brands’ or strands of Christianity. I remember once when I was speaking to someone about God and they were interested to know more, I knew they would be more comfortable at a different church from the one I attended (somewhere quieter!) so I suggested they try that out rather than mine. They liked it and, as far as I know, continue to attend.
Dave - right again! Which is why we now have consumer driven churches where the CEO - sorry, ‘pastor’ admits openly, “We go the consensus route”.
Totally antithetical to the Gospel!
Confession: yes, I do run a bookshop. We fall between two stools, ministry and commerce. Some of the books we stock make me cringe. Even worse is to go to a publisher’s breakfast and see the drivel being churned out. Still, there are excellent books that I DO push, because I know they are good for people. In the same way, I urge people to use Echinacea, rather than antibiotics, because it works. And I DON’T have any commercial interest there!
Sorry Nick, I wasn’t implying you had a commercial interest! In fact the opposite, I think it’s refreshing that a bookseller like you warns against consumerism! Good for you. And I aint anti-bookshops either! After all, I do make a teensy weensy bit of money from them too
Don’t worry, I love bookshops! Too much, sometimes! And yes, there is a distinction to be drawn between ‘brands’ and denominations.