Prayer Like Jazz

I was telling a friend of mine about our commitment to prayer. How we meet during the week and on the weekends to pray from 1-2 hours and just how powerful its been. He was frank. "That doesn't sound like anything I'd want to be part of." The idea of grabbing up a list of prayer requests and plowing through them one at a time until we had repeated and said amen to everyone of them was all he had ever experienced during a prayer meeting. I think limp was the word he used. But, this wasn't what we were doing. Our prayer times were different. They felt like a deep and progressive conversation where everyone was listening very carefully to the voice of the Holy Spirit. One woman on our citywide prayer meeting said it was like Jazz. I've never played Jazz. I don't know. But, if by jazz she means letting go of the sheet music and rifting off a musical theme in our own voice all the while listening very carefully to one another. Then, yes, I feel like we're praying that way. The goal seems to be oneness, but oneness like God is one, not a Borg that everyone is subsumed into, but unity that includes perfect individuation and absolute belonging. Its amazing how listening well brings the prayer of faith- the assurance that God has heard and that heaven is on its way.

I had a picture once while I was at a prayer meeting. Everyone was praying about their needs, their ministries, their desires. It was clear,folks had come with their list. "God, be with our service, with this outreach, with this person..." We were each going through our list. Then the next person. And the next. During this, I saw a picture of a person's face and their cheeks were filled with hundreds of little mouths all speaking at once. "What are cheeks for?" it was like God was asking me. "For holding food in your mouth while you digest it." I said. "My church shouldn't be coming to prayer to tell me what they want, they should be coming to prayer so that I can feed them. So that they can digest what I have for them. I want them to use this time to eat, not talk."

I saw another picture once, of a group of people, dressed uniformly, covered in hoods, they all looked the same. Unity through conformity. They were carrying torches. They looked like a religious cult. They came to the center of town and suddenly they were bathed in light form some unseen source. They dropped their torches and pulled down their hoods. I could see their faces. They were watching circus performers, singers, dancers, each one unique and each one giving off their own light. We were each lights when we were each what God made us. We were together but with the freedom to be different. I wonder if this is what God is after when we pray like Jazz?