I
It's a beautiful day outside. A little windy, with a high of 73 degrees. Positively glorious.
There's a small remnant of a veggie wrap on the table. Strains of Dave Brubeck drift through the air. A mother carries her small child down the aisle and out the door. Besides the two employees behind the counter and two women placing orders, I'm the only one here.
It's been a long weekend already. Yesterday, I played synth for vespers and bass for Adoration. The details are uninteresting, but suffice it to say vespers ran more than half an hour late and Adoration sounded awful. I arrived back in my dorm room a few minutes before midnight, discouraged and depressed. I've invested so much into Adoration, and really want to see it be a blessing to people, but sometimes, it just seems doomed.
This morning, I didn't wake up until 11:30. I arrived at SMC church and found a seat in the back just in time to hear the sermon. It was a confusing one.
In the few minutes after church, four different good friends asked if I had plans for lunch. I told them I was busy, and felt rather guilty, because strictly speaking, the only plan I had was to be alone for lunch.
So here I am at MiAroma, marinating in the quiet ambience, recovering my sanity, talking to God about all the things that have me feeling down today. (There's a few, but they're either too boring or too personal to write about.)
Jill and I were talking about prayer earlier this week, and she expressed a degree of cynicism about the Christmas-listish nature of most prayers. Is prayer nothing more than a chance to get God's help? Worse still, is prayer nothing more than a chance to think positively and visualize your goals, thus making you more able to attain them?
I think there's more to it than that, and the "Dear Santa" approach to prayer shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what prayer is for. Prayer is not the process of enlisting God's help in solving our problems and celebrating our successes; prayer is the process of making our problems His problems, and celebrating His glory.
There's a small remnant of a veggie wrap on the table. Strains of Dave Brubeck drift through the air. A mother carries her small child down the aisle and out the door. Besides the two employees behind the counter and two women placing orders, I'm the only one here.
It's been a long weekend already. Yesterday, I played synth for vespers and bass for Adoration. The details are uninteresting, but suffice it to say vespers ran more than half an hour late and Adoration sounded awful. I arrived back in my dorm room a few minutes before midnight, discouraged and depressed. I've invested so much into Adoration, and really want to see it be a blessing to people, but sometimes, it just seems doomed.
This morning, I didn't wake up until 11:30. I arrived at SMC church and found a seat in the back just in time to hear the sermon. It was a confusing one.
In the few minutes after church, four different good friends asked if I had plans for lunch. I told them I was busy, and felt rather guilty, because strictly speaking, the only plan I had was to be alone for lunch.
So here I am at MiAroma, marinating in the quiet ambience, recovering my sanity, talking to God about all the things that have me feeling down today. (There's a few, but they're either too boring or too personal to write about.)
Jill and I were talking about prayer earlier this week, and she expressed a degree of cynicism about the Christmas-listish nature of most prayers. Is prayer nothing more than a chance to get God's help? Worse still, is prayer nothing more than a chance to think positively and visualize your goals, thus making you more able to attain them?
I think there's more to it than that, and the "Dear Santa" approach to prayer shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what prayer is for. Prayer is not the process of enlisting God's help in solving our problems and celebrating our successes; prayer is the process of making our problems His problems, and celebrating His glory.
posted by Life on Wry at 11:05 AM
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