Prayer, Trust and Churchianity

Lately I've been thinking about prayer—about the weird ideas we Churchians have developed about prayer, and about how they fit (or not) with our claim to trust God. I mean, we trust God, right? We know (stop me when I'm wrong) that he is all-powerful, all-knowing, loving, good, and basically smarter than we are. Right? He has a plan, and a place for each of us in that plan. And I have to assume that his plan is bigger and better than anything I could come up with¹. Anyone disagree yet?

So...why do we give him instructions?

We claim to trust God completely, and yet we feel a need to instruct him. To tell him how and when to meet our needs and wants. If you have any Churchians as Facebook friends, you see it all the time: "I had an interview today—pray that I get the job!" "Please pray that my cousin doesn't get deployed to Afghanistan". "Going to look at a new car—pray that we get it!" Hmmm. Well, what if that job isn't the place where God wants you? Do you still want me to ask him to put you there? What if God's plan for the world depends on your cousin being in Afghanistan? Is it OK if I ask for God's will to be done, or would you really rather have me ask him to do your will?

Doesn't make sense, does it?

Right now, I have a situation in my own life². There's this thing that I really want. From where I'm sitting, it looks like a thing that would be great for me and my family in several different ways. It totally seems to fit with God's plan (his plan as understood and interpreted by me, that is). It's a no-brainer: this is obviously a good thing and must be God's will for me. So. What do I do? Ask all my friends to pray that this thing happens like I want it to? Beg God endlessly myself? "Please God please God please God make this good thing happen"? In my past life as a Churchian, that's exactly what I would have done.

But...

Do I trust God, or not? Do I believe that he has a plan, and a place for me in that plan? Well, yes. I do. If this super great thing is actually a super great part of his super great plan, do I need to tell him to make it happen? Kind of ridiculous, isn't it? Me giving God instructions, like maybe he forgot what he was supposed to do next?

So then, what? Don't pray?

As a recovering Churchian, I'm tempted to fall back to my default setting of praying for my will instead of God's. But here's how I've been reminding myself to pray, about my current situation as well as other things that I want/need/worry about: "God, thank you that your plan is better than my plan. I give this situation to you. Please carry out your plan, and please make my will match up with yours."

Amen

1. His plan is better than mine. That doesn't always mean that I'll like it better, especially in the short term.
2. Nothing big, bad, or scary, I promise.

Are you "saved"?

"Saved"—one of our great Churchian phrases. It's great for defining who's in and who's out. It lets us categorize everyone as saved or unsaved and rest in the assurance that we who are saved are better than those who are not. But how can you tell who's saved? You don't always have access to the response cards¹ to see who checked which box, so there has to be some other measuring stick.

"You will know them by their fruit"²

We Churchians all know what that means, right? It means that you can tell who's in and who's out by how well they follow the rules, how often they go to church and what kinds of good deeds they do. Growing up in Churchian circles, I learned two Very Important Things: Jesus wants to give you the totally free gift of salvation; and there is a long list of rules you'll need to follow once you accept that totally free gift. Huh?

It's a classic bait-and-switch tactic:

Here's this free gift! Take it! We'll talk later about the monthly membership fees. And the lifestyle restrictions. And you'll probably need to take some classes to learn how to follow all the rules associated with this totally free, no-strings-attached gift. It'll be great!

Why can't we get more people to sign on for this deal?³

And the real question: why are we Churchians so invested in making up rules and complicating the simple gift Jesus offers?

Well...accepting charity is hard on the self-esteem. If we accept that Jesus really doesn't want or need anything from us, we have to come to terms with accepting his charity. Who wants to feel like they're in need of someone's help? Not me. I like to think that I'm pretty self-sufficient and have my, um, "stuff" together. Could that be why I've spent so many years being proud of my rule-following and good works? "Yeah, me and God, we're friends. He saved me and stuff because he needs me to follow all these rules and help him with things. Totally a give-and-take relationship."

Nope.

The truth is that we suck. I suck. I'm basically clueless, useless and not nice, and I need God. He doesn't need anything from me.

This is not a balanced relationship.

So then, what do we have to be all proud of ourselves about? We love this "us against them", "I'm OK and they're not" mentality that lets us feel like we're better than those poor unsaved saps. But it's pretty ridiculous, isn't it?

So, are you "saved"? Am I?

Well...I'd have to say I am in the process of being saved. Jesus is saving me from sin, from myself, and from Churchianity, but that process is nowhere near complete. "Getting saved"⁴ is not an event, when we step over a magical line separating the good guys from the bad guys. It's a process...a journey. So how about if we worry less about categorizing people and show some grace⁵ to people⁶, wherever they are on the road?

1. The documents many churches collect in order to compile statistics on people's spiritual progress.
2. Matthew 7:16
3. Not a real question, by the way.
4. Please...can we just stop using this phrase?
5. For examples of grace, read about Jesus.
6. Yes, even to fellow Churchians.