Unscrambling the Question of Prayer

Twila Compton from Charlotte, North Carolina, writes:

The question I have is about prayer. For so many years I have begun my prayers with

“have mercy on me, O gracious God.” Having been well taught to

be guilty and unworthy, it is hard to come up with a positive prayer.

At times I feel like my religious beliefs are like a bowl of scrambled eggs

and I keep trying to unscramble them.

Dear Twila,

Yours is just another form of the question that emerges constantly

among my readers and those who attend my lectures.

Prayer focuses our theology as does nothing else.

In your words, you were taught to begin your prayers with a plea for mercy.

You were taught to be guilty and unworthy. That is the experience of many.

Look, however, at what these words commit you to believe. You are

making an assumption that God is a powerful parent figure

in the sky who elicits fear and guilt. You have defined yourself as one who

has failed to satisfy what you perceive to be this God’s requirements.

Perhaps that is because you have been taught that God is a judge

“unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from

whom no secrets are hidden.” Who among us would not feel guilty

and afraid before an authority figure who knows us this well?

This God might be very useful if controlling behavior is religion’s

primary agenda. If, however, the purpose of Jesus as interpreted by the

Fourth Gospel is correct that he came “that they might have life and have

it abundantly,” then a prayer based on an understanding of God that elicits

primarily guilt and fear will never accomplish that goal.

It is not, therefore, a positive way to pray that you seek, but a

whole new understanding of life and what the word “God” means in terms

of that life. That then becomes something that cannot be addressed in a

question and answer format. It also points to why people like you have

increasing difficulty participating in the life of traditional religious

institutions that are more into guilt rather than grace, fear rather than faith

and judgment rather than Jesus. If prayer is the activity of your life through

which God is experienced as life, love and being, then prayer is more about

who you are than what you do.

The journey starts there — travel well.

– John Shelby Spong