Praying with my own words

I find myself moving from low to high church. I come from a tradition where believers are taught to pray directly to God using their own words. I still hear pastors say things like, "You can talk to God on your own. You don't need special prayers or the prayers of other people. Use your own words."

At some point in my journey I discovered that kind of prayer wasn't working so well for me. I desperately wanted something more than my own words. My own words seemed weak and trivial. I realized that for years I had been longing for more help than that in my praying. I had memorized precious few prayers, and I needed a few more.

Since then I've discovered some really great prayers that are not as they say, my own words. But it is simply astonishing to me how much they become my own words when I pray them.

The book of Psalms for example, is a book of prayers and songs. If I had no other prayers, I could live on these alone. There's this one from Psalm 17:

I call on you, O God, for you will answer me;
give ear to me and hear my prayer.
Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings.
Psalm 17:6, 8

Or how about this simple line just across the page in Psalm 18 - a worthy prayer for any day:

I love you, O Lord, my strength.
Psalm 18:1

In addition to the Psalms, I have come to love some very simple prayers of the Church. Who knows how old these are, but they are essentially words adapted from Scripture and prayed for countless years by Christian pilgrims:

The Jesus Prayer

Lord Jesus, Christ
Son of God
Have mercy on me.

How simple and profound is that! And how transforming and peaceful a prayer it is. How rhythmic. It's how Jesus said we should pray - how the poor man prayed.

And then this one that I love to pray when I'm facing trouble of any kind. It comes to me frequently in times that are not what I would want them to be, in times when I know I need help, in times when I feel inadequate or lonely or greatly challenged.

Oh God, come to my assistance,
Oh Lord, make haste to help me.

When I pray any one of these things repeatedly, the prayer begins to well up from within me and becomes a fountain of life. The prayer itself flows through me as the River of Life, as Christ himself, as Spirit, as God. The prayer becomes my own words.

I think I understand what the pastors are trying to say when they let people know it's ok to pray their own words. I also think it's a disservice to not help people a little bit more to come to their own words by way of a rich tradition of scripture and written prayers of the people.

Writing to you from our home on St. Williams Loop where 30+ high school girls will gather tonight at 4:30 to spray paint t-shirts for their upcoming District Swim Meet at the University of Texas aquatic center. These same girls will stay all night and participate in other traditions, some involving toilet paper and boys' houses. Lauren will be competing for the first time in the District Meet, swimming the 200 yard Individual Medley and the 100 yard Backstroke. Go Dragons!

We're having some of the best weather of the year in Central Texas. Many days of beautiful sunshine, low humidity and cold temperatures. Reminds me of one of the places of my heart - New Mexico. Reminds me of God.