The call and the fall 10/23/2013
In talking about the phenomenology of prayer, we discussed
the concept of the call. We described the call as a direction from God that is
not determined by the notion of expectation. The story of Samuel in the Bible
is referenced and the fact that Samuel did not wait for Go to call was
highlighted. Samuel was simply put in a situation that played out the way it
did because of God’s intentional, yet subtle initiation.
The call is seldom a thing that is ever written out, plain
for the eye to see. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it is not exactly
probable. That being said, the Lord is all powerful and could very well write
out everyone’s calling on a little index card and mail it to us via
pigeon. Thinking about it now, that
would actually be pretty nice. No! That’s just not how it works. And I don’t
think it’s just me saying that. In the beginning of time, man walked alongside God and they existed together
in a perfect, open, clear relationship. However, when man sinned, there was a
tragic separation that took place. Man noticed his state of nakedness and was
ashamed; the openness of the relationship was destroyed. No longer did man walk
alongside his creator… The separation caused by the fall of man prohibits us
from communicating perfectly and clearly with God. Sin is the wall that muffles
the Lord’s voice when we try to listen to Him.
One of the main points that we touched on that I really
liked was the fact that the call is dialogue-even though it comes from outside
oneself. That is something that I know I struggle with a lot; dialogue. I am a
monologue prayer by nature. I ramble on and on about whatever pops into my
head-and I might be ADD, so it’s a pretty steady flowing stream of thoughts at
all times. The Bible gives us a rough outline for prayer (Matt 6:9-13) and I
definitely follow it, but another part of the outline should include
“listen”. Without listening, how does
one expect to hear what he Lord has to say back?
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