Availing Much

I recently received an email from my church inviting me to a time of prayer. In that email the author quoted a small portion of an essay on prayer by David Wells. I had never heard of this person before which is not really a surprise since he is a contemporary theologian. I don’t know of any such scholars. But I was blown away by several of his observations. And chief among them was this gem:

“What, then, is the nature of petitionary prayer? It is, in essence, rebellion—rebellion against the world in its fallen-ness, the absolute, and undying refusal, to accept as normal, what is pervasively abnormal. It is, in this its negative aspect, the refusal of every agenda, every scheme, every interpretation that is at odds with the norm as originally established by God.  As such, it is itself an expression of the unbridgeable chasm that separates Good from Evil, the declaration that Evil is not a variation on Good-but its antithesis.”

Maybe you are not shocked by these words. But I was. And I still am. I’m still trying to get my mind wrapped around this concept that has made my heart and soul jump late in the night when I first read it. Years ago, the philosophy of phenomenology was explained to me in part as the idea that we have an innate understanding of what to do with things when we encounter them even if we have never before seen, heard or felt them. We recognize them. (We re-cognize them. That is to say, we re-know them.) I have always loved this idea. I confess that I am strangely sentimental about it because when I heard it, it seemed very right. I was re-cognizing the idea as an important fact.

I believe that this concept of prayer, so bluntly yet eloquently stated by Wells as rebellion against the brokenness of this world, is something my soul recognized immediately as right. And it immediately added fuel to my prayer life. Because of it, I have lately spent more time than usual petitioning at the throne.

And I am deeply challenged by it. This beautiful world is cracked and broken and we can all see it. Wars, rumors of wars, men’s hearts failing them, disease, pride, selfishness, envy and all the sin and evil in this world is evident every day. So we must pray against the fallen-ness, knowing, on an intuitive level, that we are right to do so.