Praying

During the last class session we read the poem “praying” by Mary Oliver and I completely agree with this poem from the first line all the way till the last one. In the poem it basically says that prayer do not have to be a novel, it could be just “a few words patch together.” I think we as Christians sometimes think that we have to say so much to God so he can understand everything we mean, to the last detail. In doing this I think we fail to acknowledge how great God is, he already knows what we want or what we need, even before we realize it. Another line in the poem that really stuck out to me was when she said, “this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks,” I think we as Christians are very guilty of that, we sometime take prayer, especially when we are praying out loud, as some kind of contest, we try to use these big words in order to impress our peers, it seems as if sometimes we are seeking some kind of compliment from the people around us, as if we are waiting for someone to let us know that was great prayer. Another line of the poem that really spoke to me was when she said “a silence, in which another voice may speak,” this line is basically telling me that prayer is not just speaking to God. Sometimes we just need to silence our voices and listen to what God has to say to us. I have known for a while now, that a conversation requires both speaking and listening, so if we are not listening to what God is trying to tell us, the conversation “prayer” cannot work. I’m not trying to criticize people that prays out loud or that prays for a very long time, I just hope that we have the right motive behind our prayers.