Reflections
Human beings or human doings?

Sometimes, instead of giving the requests prayerful consideration, we can find that our egos seem to have taken us over and we seem incapable of saying anything other than an immediate ‘yes’! Or we have to say ‘yes’ because it’s too difficult, and would fill us with such guilt, to say ‘no’.

Now it may of course be that God is directing us to respond affirmatively to the request, but do we sometimes follow the path I’ve described and then realise that we’ve never even thought to pray for guidance?

A phrase that seems to be cropping up in my life recently, is the fact that we are human beings rather than human doings. This started me thinking about how we fill our days and the fact that so many seem over burdened by their many activities, struggling to find any time just to ‘be’ and to have space in their lives.

Jesus, as we know, was a man of prayer and action; often it’s striking that he delayed or deferred action in order to pray.

Since the terrible events of the 11th September, it seems that many have started to question their priorities and that out of this questioning and fears for the future, they have felt moved to pray and to seek solace in places of worship. The sense of powerlessness in the face of evil has really brought home the truth that the world can be a dangerous place and that no one can be confident of the immunity from danger.

What we can be confident about is the power of prayer and the great need for prayer in these troubling times. As someone once said - ‘if we’re too busy to pray, then we’re too busy!’ What example do we as followers of Christ, wish to convey? Is it one of calmness and quiet confidence, under-girded by our prayers, or one of frantic activity?
People may be looking to us, as people of faith, to guide them by our example and to accompany them, as they seek to make sense of the world. This challenge could be a positive thing, to come out of so much sorrow, and to meet it we surely have a duty to make prayer our priority.

We’re perhaps also challenged to reflect on the corporate nature of our spirituality, and the reasons why we may long to grow spiritually. Is it so we can feel personally enriched, or is it so that we can better serve our Lord and his creation?

By Revd Julie Cox
Reproduced with kind permission from Spirituality Newsletter, Winter 2001.

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