Thoughts on Prayer

Well, I've a little busier these last few weeks, so it took me longer than I would have expected, but I just finished reading Prayer by Philip Yancey. As I said in my last "book report", Yancey is pretty much my favorite author, and so I was very excited to read his most recent work, especially since it dealt with a subject that I wrestle with quite often. I was not disappointed. One of the comments on the back of the book refers to Prayer as Yancey's "most powerful book since What's So Amazing About Grace and The Jesus I Never Knew." I have read both of those books, and I would definitely put this one in their class.

Prayer is something that I'm sure all Christians struggle with in one way or another, and Yancey gives the subject an incredibly honest and thorough treatment in the book. The result is one of the more balanced views on prayer that I've read in print. He goes neither the route of "name it, claim it" theology or the kind of theology that reduces prayer to an almost entirely earthly act, laying out in a very profound way that prayer changes us, while also acknowledging it's ability to change God.

Yancey's views are back dropped by his understanding that God's preferred method of working on the earth is through His body, the church. As such, he presents prayer as primarily our vehicle for relationship with God, rather than our laundry list of prayers and petitions (not that these aren't a part of prayer). One of my favorite lines in the whole book is where he summarizes Jesus' teachings and practice regarding prayer as succinctly and completely as I've seen: "Keep it honest, keep it simple, and keep it up!" He goes hard after the assumption that there is a certain format or language for prayer, and lays out that prayer is ultimately about having an open and honest conversation with God, telling Him exactly what is on our hearts, given that He already knows it anyhow. So much of the prayer recorded in Scripture is sorrowful, angry, doubtful, and any number of other things that are often though of as "inappropriate". The point, Yancey says, is not so much how we pray, but that we do it.

The "subtitle" of the book is "Does it make a difference?", and Yancey lays out in great depth the differences that prayer does make in our lives, in the lives of others around us, and beyond. He also gives the problem of unanswered prayer what I thought was an excellent treatment over the course of a few of the later chapters. He scored major points with me here by referencing the Garth Brooks song Unanswered Prayers, which if you've never encountered it, contains some of the most profound theology on the matter I've seen.

Anyhow, very good book, and I would highly recommend it to anyone, but especially to someone who has or is currently struggling to make sense of prayer. Yancey definitely had more than a few things to say which have really helped me in my own prayer life.

Next off the non-fiction stack is going to be Indianapolis Colts' head coach Tony Dungy's memoir/autobiography Quiet Strength. I picked up this one at Barnes and Noble on Sunday, and it immediately landed on the top of the stack, as Dungy is probably the current sports figure I have the most respect and admiration for. The fact that he does not have now, and never has had, any connection to my favorite football team makes that quite the feat indeed. Incidentally, on the fiction side, I finished The Hobbit last night, and will now be continuing into Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy for the foreseeable future. I doubt I'll be doing much in the way of book reporting on fiction, especially when I'm reading classics.