Creative Prayer

A good friend recently recommended a book to me.  Its called Creative Prayer: Speaking the Language of God's Heart.  So far ...incredible.  I wish I'd read it before my sermon Sunday.  He asks, "If we were summoned to the Oval office to present our agenda for the country, would we spend any time to prepare?  To measure our words carefully to make sure they were appropriate?  To express them in the most memorable way possible, so they'd linger in the mind of the chief executive?  Of course we would."  He then goes on to argue that our difficulty in prayer often stems from lack of preparation and creativity.  We don't engage our five senses and our enormous imaginative capabilities when we go to our father in heaven.  That resonated with me.....so I tried it some today.

As I prayed I swayed.  I prayed some contemporary Christian songs.  I prayed outside in the in the midst of his heavens and earth.  Breathing in and out I imagined God breathing into me the breath of life.  I vocalized God's blessings.  It was an incredible day.

It has got me excited to try new things.  We are made in the image of a creative God.  We are reflecting his nature when we express ourselves imaginatively.  I wouldn't consider myself creative according to ordinary classifications.  Art, I like it.  Music, got the radio on all the time.  Interpretive dance, no.  Yet in the art of living.....Yes, I think I am.  And I think all of us are capable of painting artistic masterpieces on the canvas of life.  We all have the ability of Mozart, Michelangelo, and Da Vinci.  It may never be recognized by anyone other than God, but who cares?  Isn't there a spark within us all that intuitively tells us God has crafted us especially according to his design?  We are all special and unique and each exceptionally designed to commune with God in extraordinary ways.   Think about it.  Most of us, as believers, wouldn't argue that we are all unique.  If we accept that, why would we reasonably feel the need to clone our prayers?  And if you want to reference the Lord's prayer I would argue there is a world of meaning between what we should pray and how we should pray.

When you tell a story do you try to keep it as monotone as possible?  Why not?  Its not nearly as interesting for you or the hearer.  Maybe it is time we stop lifting up our one dimensional prayers, putting on our thinking caps and revel in new ways to tell our Father about our day.

We guys, so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen goodbye