Prayer's a lot like sex

There’s something deep in every person that leaps at the mention of prayer. That something—a deep, unspoken desire for the Divine—may not leap for long, and it may leap weakly, for our desire for prayer is often mixed up with guilt and fear, doubt and disappointment. Nevertheless, there’s an arousal within each of us at the mention of prayer. This arousal isn’t always positive; for some there’s a counter-leaping within us—a revulsion that makes us recoil from prayer. Prayer’s a lot like sex. We’ve all got some kind of interest in it, but the mere mention of it can also arouse some stiff resistance to it because, frankly, we’ve all got one hang-up or another when it comes to sex. So, just by mentioning prayer I know I’m not only awakening desire but also shame.

(To be continued Thursday . . . )

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Staying clear about what you're after

When your mind and everything in it learns how to yield to the priority of your heart, surrendered to the fullness of God within you (Ephesians 3.19), your mind will become the noble instrument God created it to be. As you learn to draw your head down into your heart where Christ dwells, your mind will become infinitely more than it can ever be alone. You’ll learn how to bury your mind inside the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2.16)—there, united with its Maker and liberated from the tyranny of its own self-management, there’s no telling what your mind can do. I say all this to help you stay clear about what you’re after.

Your goal is to move past your distracting thoughts and emotions and into an unobstructed awareness of your self before God, the simple resting of your self in Love.

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Meet your rebel thoughts with stillness

Your thoughts can’t give you God any more than a photograph of the sun can give you life. Ultimately, experience—direct, unmediated, and real—is what you’re after. And most of the time, you’re thoughts will only distract you from the experience you seek. They’ll manage your experience, chattering instructions at you or shaming and blaming you for this or that. Occasionally, a helpful thought may lead you to the threshold of an encounter you’ll be tempted to capture mentally—you’ll fumble for your camera and try to holler to a friend. Don’t. Your thoughts have done their job and must now retreat before the Mystery that has come to you in grace.

You must simply be still (Psalm 46.10).

Your mind will most likely be aroused and want to do what it loves to do— figure things out, record the moment, interpret it. Don’t chase the monkeys away; instead, meet them with stillness. Your stillness will help them learn to sit in peace and trust in grace.

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Moving toward what is real

Of course, as you progress in the spiritual life, many of your thoughts want to help you toward God. They’re not evil. Most of them are good, but when it comes to real encounter with God they’re not best—just as a photograph of a sunset is good but not best. Even the most spectacular photograph misses the energy and awe your soul feels as the sun bids the day farewell in a blaze of light and color an artist can imitate but never duplicate. Thoughts about God, no matter how true are not God any more than a photograph by the most renowned artist is never a sunset.

The photo’s lovely if you cannot see the real thing, and in some ways it might even be more beautiful, but it will never replace the experience of standing in the presence of the radiant Sun that gives life to all things, enrapt in wonder.

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Why Pray? A Beginner's Grace with Kate Braestrup