contemplative prayer – Rev. Tim Ehrhardt

Remember your promise to me, your servant;
    it has given me hope.
Even in my suffering I was comforted
    because your promise gave me life.
The proud are always scornful of me,
    but I have not departed from your law.
I remember your judgments of long ago,
    and they bring me comfort, O Lord.
When I see the wicked breaking your law,
    I am filled with anger.
During my brief earthly life
    I compose songs about your commands.
In the night I remember you, Lord,
    and I think about your law.
I find my happiness
    in obeying your commands. (Good News Translation)

During a typical day, I keep busy and am engaged with applying an understanding of the spiritual life to my work. At bedtime, sometimes the job goes with me.

Stillness and silence can sometimes, ironically, become an alchemy of restlessness and noise. I toss and turn, the racing thoughts in my head refusing to slow down and rest.

Insomnia happens to everyone, some more than others. We all have experienced the inability to sleep.

There are some who choose not to sleep. They arise in the middle of the night – not because of insomnia or sleep disorders – but because they intentionally wake for prayer.

Yes, many monastics routinely pray in the night. Yet, there are many lay people who do so, as well.

In my own times of trying to sleep, I often think about those persons who are purposefully trying to stay awake and deliberately keeping watch in prayer during the night. I, then, reflexively go to the biblical psalms.

Along with the psalmist, and in solidarity with my Christian brothers and sisters in this hemisphere who are maintaining a prayerful spirit, I reflect at night on the character and nature of the Lord who created both the sun to govern the day and the moon as a faithful witness in the dark.

The psalmist seems to be awake at night because he is frustrated and upset. It irks him that there are people who spurn wise instruction and aim their contempt at those trying to live according to God’s Law.

Although insomnia can certainly be the result of angry or unwanted feelings, maybe it is something else altogether. Perhaps the psalmist simply chose to be awake at night and do some theological reflection on God, others, and himself.

At various times in my life, I have decided to set my alarm for two o’clock in the morning to pray. I know it may sound crazy to some. Yet, this discipline has taught me something valuable: God is Lord over all chronological time and every season. I am a servant. I am neither lord nor master.

This nightly exercise of weaving my life around a set time of prayer has caused me to learn that I have spent far too much of my life trying to make time bend to my wishes.

It’s actually delusional for me to believe that I somehow control time – that I can cause the relationship between events to be fast or slow. It is all really an illusion – that I can control the clock. Time marches forward, seasons come and go, and we are a vapor which lasts only a moment.

The only control I possess is self-control. Anything beyond this is nothing but a pathetic attempt at manipulation.

Whether we find ourselves awake in the night because we cannot sleep, or intentionally choose to use the night for connecting with God, the wee hours of darkness afford us a unique opportunity to ponder the Lord’s promises, commands, attributes, and works.

The next time you find yourself awake at night, try avoiding the television and a zombie-like state of hoping for sleep. Try using the night-time for reflecting on the Lord in ways you might not have considered during the day. Pray. Reflect. Consider. In doing so, you may find a blessing of light within the dark.

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.

There is a great deal of loneliness in this world. Increasingly, more and more people live alone. As job hours build to crazy levels, disconnection occurs simply out of having no discretionary time to spend with others. So, for many people, taking the time to sit in the presence of God and forget about the clock seems almost absurd. It is as if contemplating Christ is some luxury instead of a necessity. But it is a vital Christian practice.

I propose that just maybe the reason why so many Christians, churches, and ministry organizations have contemplation off their spiritual radars has to do with how we view our relationship with God. Communicating with God is a great privilege, and made possible through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christian contemplation we do not just pray to get something; we seek to adore God and enjoy being in his presence. God longs for our companionship. Yes, you read that right. God delights in us. He wants to be with us. This weird notion that God always wants something from us is one-dimensional and truncates the true knowledge of God into a business transaction where we give God obedience and he answers our prayers.

If that is your typical understanding of how we relate to God, consider the beginning of humanity. God enjoyed “walking in the cool of the day” with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8-9). The original garden is portrayed as a paradise because it was the place where God and his creatures simply enjoyed being with one another. We must come to grips with the reality that becoming spiritually mature means learning to love God for who he is, not just for what he can do for us.

Contemplative prayer has as its singular goal being with God, period. It is about allowing time to melt away into an enjoyment of God, and God’s enjoyment of us. If this seems strange, mystical, or medieval, it is only because contemporary evangelicalism has strayed far from the streams of living water offered through the kind of prayer that contemplates the grace and love of God in Christ. Maybe you can only view God loving you if you are living a perfect life. Remember this: there is nothing you can do to make God love you more or less. It is high time we relax enough to receive the wondrous reality that God loves us for who we are and not for what we can give to him.

God longs to be with us! The “Jesus Prayer” is a simple and ancient prayer that combines the prayer of the tax collector from Luke 18:13 (“God be merciful to me, a sinner”) with the earliest confession of the church (“Jesus is Lord”). Put it together, and the Jesus Prayer is: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” It is meant to be a means of entering into the presence of God and experiencing communion with Jesus. Repeating phrases from Holy Scripture are some of my favorite ways of engaging in contemplative prayer. I like personalizing Philippians 3:10, “I want to know you, Lord Christ, and the power of your resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in your sufferings.” Using the biblical book of psalms is a wonderful place to express the desire of our hearts toward God, and to drink in his love for us. Over time the repeated words begin to fall away into a deep connection with God.

Again, if I seem to be sounding like some reclusive monk locked up in a remote monastery, I can assure you that I am not in any such place. I am a busy pastor who has more responsibilities that he ought to have. But I do neither my church nor my God any favors by constantly working with no time set aside to connect with the reason we are to engage in this Christian work to start with: to know Jesus to the very core our beings. None of us are brains-on-a-stick meant to check off on a list of beliefs; then, go on our merry way being uptight, anxious, and worried about everything under the sun because we did not let those beliefs sink down into the marrow of our spiritual bones.

God is huge, and he is full of huge love for his creatures. The Western church must begin to allow the fog to lift so that we can walk with God in the garden of the soul. How will you and your church allow God into your lives to make this happen? The answer to that question might just be the very thing you have been looking for all along.