Brainwaves

Prayer: communication between our earthly existence and a Supreme Being whom we believe to have created all that we know. The question is: How does it work? Is it simply a matter of sending “up” requests by faith, thanking Him when they are answered, and ignoring it when they are not? Is God really out “there” somewhere?...........

I took a large candle, about eight inches tall and maybe six inches in circumference, with me when we visited the Youth Detention Center yesterday. Bob led off with a song, but from there we went into a Sunday school lesson introduced by the above and designed so as to allow open discussion. Having pre-drilled two holes into the candle and cut an orange pipe-cleaner in half, I now pointed to those verses of Scripture which declare the spirit of every man to be lit by his Creator and inserted a “flame” into one of the holes. Then, holding the other fiery bit of fuzz up over my head to represent God, I suggested that most of us attempt conversation with Him as if such vast chasm had to be crossed in order to be heard. What’s more: after sticking that second “flame” into the other hole, my next words were to wonder if, as believers, we didn’t yet pray the same way even though the Holy Ghost had set up camp right beside us!..........

While making it plain that, any time we sincerely reach out to Him, the Almighty does indeed hear our petitions heavenward, I compared it to a fellow who once served with me on a hunk of rock in the Bering Strait, fairly close to Russia. Needing to talk with his wife, he was forced to utilize the one and only method available to us in those days: Ham radio. It connected him with the mainland where a collect telephone call was placed to his wife and he then explained to her the need to end each part of their dialogue with “over” so that the intermediary would know to throw a switch reversing the flow. His spouse, however, was so shaken by the experience that, each time he shared with her as much information he thought able to be comprehended in one gulp, the only response given to his pronouncement of it being her turn to speak…was silence. People can settle for that, of course, but Christ provides us with so much more……..

Reaching for the two pipe-cleaners, I asked if anyone had ever watched as two flames burned in such proximity. As they grow in intensity, they are drawn unto each other and become one; and, to illustrate that fact, I twisted the two orange S/spiritual representatives together. Indeed, I noted, THIS…is prayer as it is meant to be. We may not always achieve it, but most certainly this ought to be our goal, for what it brings unto us is “faith” as the Bible defines it. Not some arduous “grunt and groan“, trying to produce that which might compel the Entity on the other end to comply with our requests, but a gift of God giving divine assurance of our position in Him. It floods us with boldness, not arrogance, for it humbles us even as it empowers us; and this, it seems to me, is what the writer of Hebrews refers to when he inquires: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”………

For the third time in a row, our hour with these kids closed in an individual heart-felt seeking of His witness in their life………