Fumbly, Stumbly, Wooly-headed, Thick-tongued Prayers

Last updated on: October 7, 2013 at 3:00 am by willduquette

Fumbly, Stumbly, Wooly-headed, Thick-tongued Prayers 2013-10-06T13:35:49-05:00 willduquette

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Prayer is a massive, wonderful, frightening thing. God is there and wants to hear from us and to help us. Hard for a low-down no-good sinner to accept. Massively hard. But it’s the Truth. He has given me This Day.

So saith The Fat Guy, Scott Chaffin.

I’ve been distantly acquainted with Scott for many years, more or less since the dawn of the Blogosphere. I’ve read his blog off and on, and every so often he’s left a comment on mine, reminding me that he’s still around. He’s always written about food, music, sports, and life in general with a pleasing mixture of earthy gusto and a refusal to take himself seriously.

For the past while he’s been dealing with cancer and chemo, and dealing with both as best he can. And not coincidentally, today he’s talking about the Lord’s Prayer, the “Swiss Army Knife of Prayers”, and what he said struck me hard.

Yesterday I started reposting my series on the Interior Life, which is to say the life of prayer. Christian discipleship is all about having a living relationship with Jesus, and prayer is the medium of that relationship. To live with Christ, you need to pray. And if you don’t generally pray, how do you start?

Scott suggests that if all you can do is pray the Lord’s Prayer, do that. It’s how Jesus taught his disciples to pray, and so it’s the best starting point. In doing so you open yourself to the Father and ask for what you really need, using the words Jesus gave us.

But second, he reminds me of a reality that’s probably more widespread than I could have guessed. Scott says of his own prayers,

My own fumbly, stumbly, wooly-headed, thick-tongued prayers are an embarrassment to me, though I understand they shouldn’t be. But they still offend me. I have fretted for years over my entreaties to the Lord.

I wonder how many others have had a similar experience. As Scott notes, the problem isn’t with his prayers, but with his embarrassment—but how to get past that?

Then, after catching the cancer, and musing about the unsuitability of my personal prayers and the swiss cheese nature of chemo-brain, Francis Poretto advised me to start with the Lord’s Prayer, and if that’s as far as I got, well, it would do the trick. As it happens, it opened up my heart & my head to more prayer. No less fumbly, stumbly, wooly-headed and thick-tongued, but I ceased caring (mostly.)

The hard part of a conversation with someone you don’t know, at least for us introverts, isn’t continuing it; it’s getting started at all. And maybe we’re all introverts when it comes to the Father. But it turns out that he’s told us how to get started.

Anyway, go read the whole thing; and click through to the post Scott links to. It’s good, too.

Bootstrapping the Interior Life

Christian Living

Links to This and That

Christianity

holiness

prayer

Previous Post

October 6, 2013

Bootstrapping the Interior Life

Next Post

October 7, 2013 Religion *Is* a Relationship

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Admin App o' the Morning Ask the Dogmat Believing Thomas Bits of Fiction Blasts from the Past Bootstrapping the Interior Life Catholic Mom Christian Living Deep Thoughts from the Doghouse Dominicana Evangelii Gaudium Interviews It Was A Dark and Stormy Night Links to This and That Lumen Fidei Meme Watch On Writing Operation Gratitude Pedant Errant Photography Quill Random Barkings S'Mary's World Shakers of Salt Software Development The Dog Whistler The Dogmat Sez Third Orders Thomas Aquinas Uncategorized Vikings at Dinos Woof Guide to Cinema Woof Guide to History Woof Guide to Literature Woof Guide to Obscure Catholic Music Woof Guide to Philosophy Woof Guide to Popular Music Woof Guide to Technology Woof Guide to Theology Words I Wish I'd Written Works For Me

Select a Month September 2016 August 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was Jesus laid in after He was born?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A basket A manger A throne A bed