Contemplative Prayer
The Evangelical Recovery of a Precious Treasure

Contemplative prayer is an ancient treasure of the church that needs to be rediscovered by evangelicals. Too often, evangelicals disregard contemplative prayer because of its affiliation with Catholicism or its close association with New Age thinking. This is tragic. Contemplative prayer is the possession of the whole church - Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant. Even though contemplative prayer may have similarities to some New Age practices, it also has radical dissimilarities. We should never neglect something simply because of its associations with people or similarities to practices we hold in suspicion. The "guilt by association" game is a silly sport played by overly suspicious people who mistake doubt for discernment. Those who embrace "guilt by association" are never able to consistently live out their convictions - unless they are willing to live alone on a desert island.

I have seen this phenomenon again and again: solid evangelicals are convicted of their need to grow in their prayer life. This is good. However, because of their lack of awareness of the full stream of prayer exercises in the Christian tradition, they usually resort to a series of meetings consisting of endless petitions (mostly for sick or unsaved people). In time, people grow tired of a constant stream of "give me's" and "give them's" and move on to the next thing - whatever that might be.

Most of our evangelical prayer exercises are chatty, presumptuous, and ultimately, soul-deadening. A recovery of prayer that is simply an endless stream of personal requests ultimately comes across as self-serving. A recovery of prayer that demands healings and prosperity is simply a religious version of the American dream. What we need is a recovery of prayer that encompasses and embraces the whole counsel of the whole church of God. In other words, we need to pray "always" in "all ways."

Of course we need to learn how to petition God. But that is not the heart of prayer. We also need to learn how to practice the presence of God in all things which is nothing more than "living prayer" - communion with God in all situations (which is the goal of prayer, isn't it?). We also need to learn how to deeply reflect on God through slow meditative prayer. Finally, we desperately need to recover contemplative prayer - silent resting in the Lord.

Ruth Haley Barton's Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God's Transforming Presence, is a good first step in this direction. She presents contemplative prayer in a manner that most evangelicals will be comfortable with.

Why do we need contemplative prayer? Blaise Pascal wrote, "all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own room." We are so miserable with ourselves that we fear fully facing ourselves, so we multiply distractions in order to keep from facing the truth about ourselves. And yet, we realize that until we are at rest with ourselves in the presence of God, we will never be happy. This is what contemplative prayer opens up to us: the possibility of really resting in God. Not doing anything but simply being with God. No prayer-list, no agenda, no study plan. In this way, we oppose our culture's focus on productivity and our own pride of self-importance.

We mistakenly think that if we had more time we would be able to pursue this kind of intimate relationship with God. The reality is that if we had more time we would just fill it up in the same way with the same frenetic activities we are already consumed by. What we need is to intentionally take time to be alone with God in contemplative prayer. We cannot wait for the opportunity to arrive - for it never will. We must make it happen by setting apart time for God. Is anything really more important?

In her book, Ruth provides helpful insights concerning the practice of contemplative prayer. I have implemented a number of her insights and have found them incredibly fruitful in my times of prayer. Repeatedly, I have found that the peace and calm I experience in a few short minutes carries with me throughout the day.

The good news is that God is seeking us. He desires this intimate union and communion with us more than we do with him. He calls us to break free from the noise and busyness of our lives to be fully present with him. However, there is a price. If we practice contemplative prayer long enough, we will soon discover the abyss of emptiness that lies within us. How difficult it is to truly face ourselves. As we practice contemplative prayer, God will expose to us the endless varieties of distractions we embrace to numb ourselves to reality. We also discover how little we trust God for our soul's good. We feel that unless we tell God exactly how and when to do something that we may be left with the short end of the stick.

However, it is worth the pain. Through the practice of solitude and silence in contemplative prayer, we personally become better Christians, and thus, better lovers of other people. For Ruth, contemplative prayer exposed her loveliness, even though she had been a Christian for years: "even though I had been a Christian for many years I did not know how to love - really. Particularly when love was demanding or inconvenient or interfered with my own desires, I did not know how to die to myself in even the smallest way" (26). I found this to be true in my life as well.

In order to keep her readers from assuming contemplative prayer is a narcissistic exercise in radical individualism, Ruth reminds her readers of the wise words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Let him who cannot be alone beware of community... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone." This is an important balance in light of our recent discussions on spiritual community. We must integrate corporate spirituality with individual spirituality. They do not have to be at odds with another. In fact, one without the other is dangerous.

Without solitude we are dangerous in the human community and in the Christian community, because we are at the mercy of our compulsions, compelled by our inner emptiness into a self-oriented, anxious search for fullness in the next round of activities, accomplishments or relationships. When we are not finding ourselves loved by God in solitude, in the company of others we are always on the prowl for ways they can fill our emptiness. We enter life in community trying to grab and grasp from others what only God can give. (132-133)

We need to stop "chatting" so much. God calls us to solitude and silence - to rest in his love. "The deepest level of communication is not communication but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and beyond speech, and beyond concept" (Thomas Merton). Our most beautiful experiences are experiences that go beyond words: a gorgeous sunset, a calm lake, the tender touch of an infant, the gentle caress of two people in love. Long-winded descriptions of these experiences does not enhance our enjoyment, but ruins it. How much more basking in the love and life of God!

© Richard J. Vincent, 2004



Comments

Rich: Let me begin by saying that I am personally inclined toward the contemplative life. Still, as a student of church history, and, particularly, evangelicalism, I do have some questions concerning the rise of this practice over the past century within the church. My greatest apprehension, I think, lies in the fact that so many who promote and teach the contemplative life often promote it as a path to God that seems to negate the cross of Christ altogether. While this is not so much the case in centuries past, many modern 'mystics' teach that we all possess Christ within us, and that we simply need to embrace this true self in God through centered prayer and other spiritual exercises. There is no or little talk of conversion, repentance or our sinfulness, except in nebulous terms, which border on psychobabble. Our alienation from God is deemed little more than our failure to embrace the divinity that lies within. Our sin nature is really our acceptance of our false self dictated to us by our hurts, societal pressures and falsehood. While there is much truth in all of this, I am sure, it should be of little surprise that many of these teachers are active in inter-faith dialouges that stretch far beyond Christian ecumenicism. Indeed, many of the proponents and leaders of the contemplative prayer movement within evangelicalism have been trained by spiritual directors within the Buddhist and other Eastern traditions. This should prove at the very least a troublesome indicator for the thoughtful follower of Christ. I humbly propose a common theme among many of the 'mystics' and those who follow a contemplative path toward Christ: They gradually focus on their walk, rather than the Path Himself; they cherish the inner gifts rather than the giver. This, of course, is the essence of sin - substituting God with another source of 'life,' whether it come in spiritual garb or otherwise. I have refrained from naming names, as I, too, despise the 'guilt by association' tendency. I will use one 20th century mystic, however, as an example, as he is both immensely popular and, to me, wholly confusing. I speak of Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk whose books have sold in the millions. I have read from two of Mertons books at some length, and found that early in his faith, he sought to follow Christ, albeit through the Roman Catholic methodology. While Merton remained a Catholic his whole life, he eventually studied and embraced the methodology of Zen Buddhism and other Eastern 'paths,' to the point where he eventually felt they were legitimate paths to the divine, and also embraced the idea that we all have a divine self within that must be revealed through the contemplative path and a false self that must be 'crucified' by 'annhilation,' or what many theologicans or biblicists would call mortification. The question is, was Merton right, or did he stray? If he was right, then Christ is simply one more path to the divine (or at least he is The Path, but can be accessed by many who do not or will not know Him by name). If he did stray, however, than we are at risk of negating the necessity of the cross when we embrace methodologies that deny the essential doctrines of our depravity and need of redemption, not just in symbolic phraseology, but in real, concrete realities. I honestly do not know the answer to this question at this stage in my own walk, but I do believe the line of distinction in this area of seeking the divine in blurring.

Posted by: Pravda at July 9, 2004 4:06 PM

Loving God, We ask that you will bless our church with ten new families this year, according to your will. Break down the barriers build the bridges between different denominations. As I preach "pray without ceasing" on Sunday, open the eyes and ears of yur congregation to receive the word and to act upon it. We ask for protection for all the clergy of our town, the teachers, the police as they seek to do your will. amen

Posted by: elaine frankland at February 16, 2006 5:23 AM

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