A Pastor’s Thoughts

By Rev. Nancy Adams, Owego United Methodist Church —

Here is an excerpt from a story called “The City of Everywhere” by Hugh Price Hughes.

He arrived in that city one cold morning. As he got off the train, the station was like any other station with the crowds except that everybody was barefooted. They wore no shoes. He noticed the cab driver was barefooted. “Pardon me,” he asked the driver, “I was just wondering why you don’t wear shoes. Don’t you believe in shoes?” 

“Sure we do,” said the driver. “Why don’t you wear them,” asked the man. The driver replied, “Ah, that’s the question. Why don’t we wear shoes? Why don’t we?”

At the hotel it was the same. The clerk, [bellhops], everybody was barefooted. In the coffee shop he noticed a man at a table opposite him who also was barefooted. He said, “I notice you aren’t wearing shoes. I wonder why. Don’t you know about shoes?” the man replied, “Of course I know about shoes.” “Then why don’t you wear them?” “Ah, that’s the question,” said the man, “why don’t we?”

After breakfast the man walked out on the street in the snow, but every person he saw was barefooted. He asked another man about it and pointed out how shoes protect feet from the cold. The man said, “We know about shoes.” “See that building over there? That is a shoe manufacturing plant and every week we gather there to hear the man in charge tell us about shoes and how wonderful they are.” “Then why don’t you wear shoes?” The man replied, “Ah, that is the question.”

Relaying this story in his book, “What’s it all About”, Dr. Robert Goodrich, Jr., adds, “Don’t we believe in prayer? Don’t we know what it could mean to our lives?”

“Of course we do; we know about prayer. Then why don’t we pray? Ah, that’s the question. Why don’t we pray? Why don’t we?” (Charles Allen quoted all of the above in his book, “All Things Are Possible Through Prayer”.)

Sometimes our tendency might be to pray when things go wrong, and sometimes we pray by rote. Every week during worship we pray the Lord’s Prayer. Do we mean those words, or are we just on “automatic pilot,” not really thinking about what we are praying?

Prayer is conversation: 2-way communication with god. Listening to God is the often-overlooked aspect of prayer. How do we hear what God is saying to us?  Sometimes it’s a new insight that comes directly from listening in prayer. Or sometimes God will speak through a passage of scripture, or through the words of a Christian song, or through the counsel of a trusted friend. How is it for you?

Marvin Hinten wrote a book called “God is not a Vending Machine.” “Okay God, I want this, this, this, and this. Amen.” 

No. God is not a divine Santa Claus, there to give us whatever we want. I don’t know how it is for you, but all too often I forget to say, “Oh, by the way, God, what can I do for you,” and then stick around to listen to his response. 

God loves us and wants the best for us, but that doesn’t mean we will receive everything we ask for. Do things happen that I don’t understand? You better believe it. Why? I don’t know. Is everything that happens God’s will? No. No. No. God gets blamed for a lot of stuff God doesn’t do.  

Prayer is not just telling God what’s on our minds. The goal is intimate union with the mind, heart, and will of God. Frederick Buechner wrote this about prayer in his book, “Wishful Thinking”. 

“We should keep on beating a path to God’s door because one thing you can be sure of is that down the path you beat with even your most half-cocked and halting prayer, the God you call upon will finally come, and even if he does not bring you the answer you want, he will bring you himself, and maybe at the secret heart of all our prayers, that is what we are really praying for.”

Yes.