That thing called prayer

In the last 2-3 months, I started to regain some sort of confidence again in spoken prayer. Or the whole concept of prayer, really. But after a casual cyber conversation, and someone mentioning to ask Girl A to pray cos their prayers are effective, I once again am starting to doubt the ‘prayer’ thing. Why would one person’s prayer be more effective than another? What does prayer really accomplish? If someone else’s prayer is more effective, then why should I bother? What is prayer about? What the hell is a prayer warrior? Why do some people’s prayer seem to be constantly more effective than others? Is it because the have more faith? What qualifies for someone to have more faith? Does that mean that because I am at a stage where I am questioning lots of things about God and faith, that I have less faith? How do you measure the extent of someone’s faith?

I am off to our staff gathering tomorrow, which I am sure will include quite a bit of prayer in it – a whole week of it. *sigh* Not an easy time when coping with questions of prayer. Hearing people pray just makes me wonder more and hearing the contents of some people’s prayer just makes it worse. I wish we could just have silence during prayer time.

Grrrr...

It took almost 1/2 hour to drive the last 2 kms back to the house today cos I had to stop about 6 or 7 times! The temp gauge was almost hitting the roof. So I would stop, wait for it to cool somewhat and then start the car again and go forward another 200m or so and repeat the process over and over again. I didn't see smoke coming out of the bonnet so I knew I wasn't in big trouble. Got home and then looked under the bonnet.

Actually I had no idea what I was doing, so it was a really good thing that a kind neighbour came out to see what the problem was. He seemed to know about cars so was helping me check out the problem. He thinks it's just the radiator and not anything else, which was a relief cos the car was just serviced 3 weeks ago! (The mechanic mentioned that the radiator was seeping and to bring it in again.) Well, the radiator was filled up 3 weeks ago, but we found it empty just now. Not good at all! Tried putting water in only to find it was leaking out. Definitely not good.

So tomorrow morning, I will put some water in the radiator, cross my fingers, and then quickly drive to the nearest mechanic which is, thankfully, about 1km away.

Bummer way to end the day though.

tasteful 'mind candy'

I'm currently reading the 3rd book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Its a really well written series set in Botswana. Precious Ramotswe owns this agency and we follow her continual adventures including trying to trace the origins of a boy doesn't appear to talk (and smells of lion) found in the bushes. I really recommend it. Start with the first book to get the background of how it all starts. Very easy reading, and what I would consider as gourmet 'mind candy'.

pushing the boundaries

Summer cell group has resumed today. We looked at the passage in John 4 where Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman. I just love how Jesus defies the normal (but prejudiced) practices of that society. Anyway, a couple of things that I enjoyed about that passage:

John 3 looks at a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a man, with status in society, a well educated man. Then in chapter 4, he chats with a Samaritan, not only that, but a woman too, and probably uneducated. Even the disciples were surprised when they came back and saw him talking to the Samaritan woman (although they didn't voice anything). Two extremes of the spectrum. But he relates to each individual at a level where they understood him. What a beautiful picture - a God who relates freely and relevantly to all. What an amazing example for those who follow him, esp in this day and age of all sorts of prejudices.

Jesus little blurb on worship - worshipping God in spirit and in truth. I used to think it was about being honest before God and giving it everything during "times of worship". But my take on it now (helped by a couple of commentaries), is that God is spirit, so worshipping God is spirit means I acknowledge that God is in a different dimension from me, and I seek to acknowledge God in that dimension. In truth, for me means I seek to live out my life according to the truth - the teachings of Jesus. Hmm... this means there is a lot more at stake and a lot more costly than just singing earnestly!