The Sounds of Prayer
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What does prayer sound like?
I invite you to think about that for a minute—it’s not exactly a normal question. Normally when we reflect on prayer, the questions become: what is prayer? Or how do we pray? So maybe the best way to think about the sound of prayer is to first reflect upon one of our normal questions.
What is prayer?
One way people understand prayer is simply how we talk to God. Prayer is a way for us to ask God to change the things that are wrong in our lives, a way to help us on a future endeavor, a way to guide us in the right direction. It’s how we thank God for the good things in our lives, and for the people who support us. Payer is how we confess our sins to God, and how we ask for God’s forgiveness. God is our magic tool, our “genie in a lamp” who will fix our mess and make our lives better—all we have to do is ask. I understand why people approach prayer in this way, it makes prayer easy. Payer doesn’t really ask much of us at all, all we have to do is talk. It gives us a sense of control, as if God has to answer our call. But what happens when God doesn’t “fix our mess” and things keep getting worse and worse? The problem is, God isn’t our own personal wish machine. God can’t be controlled by our desires, and honestly, would we even want to worship a God that could be controlled by humanity?
Another way prayer is understood is spiritual communication between God and humanity. What does that mean? Communication is defined as the way we share information, ideas, feelings, etc. Communication requires input from both sides. Speaking and listening are both important aspects to communication. In the context of prayer, that means that as we ask and praise and confess and seek we are also intentionally listening for God’s response. Instead of imparting our own will upon God, we are seeking to understand God’s will for us. However, silence is hard and sometimes God takes a really long time to answer. As we try to listen, our minds begin to wander, and we begin thinking about food or relationships or the big game. We try to give God our time, 10 minutes 15 max, because that’s plenty of time for God to speak. Then it’s on with our busy lives. Communication is an important aspect of prayer, but I still think it’s missing something. Communication doesn’t require the commitment of presence.
In his book Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster writes that prayer “ushers us into perpetual communion with God.” I believe that is what we should strive for prayer to be: communion with God. In order to be in communion with someone, communication is a must, but there is an added layer of a commitment of presence. We build communion through shared space and relationship on a deep and intimate level. There is a promise of “I will walk with you.” Isn’t that what God promises to us? God never promised us that we won’t experience hardships, pain and loss, but God does promise that God will be present and walk with us always. When we treat prayer as communion with God we don’t always have to be the one speaking, and we also don’t always need to hear a response. We can be content in the shared space—the presence of God with us.
Often we approach prayer as either speaking to God or listening for God, but what would happen if we expanded our understanding of prayer? Communion with God is more than a simple conversation, more than listening and responding or speaking and awaiting response. Communion recognizes presence and shared space. Communion invites others in. Instead of trying to shut out the world around us as we try to force ourselves to hear God, what if we listened to the world around us with new ears? What if we invited the world around us to pray with us? What if we surrendered our need for control even in the sense of our own prayers, and instead gave our voice to the prayers around us that are already being offered?
In this way, prayer becomes more than a one on one with God. Prayer instead becomes a never ending chorus that both fills us and surrounds us. There will always be a space in prayer to ask and praise and confess and seek. There will always be a space to listen and discern the voice and will of God. Maybe we should also have an understanding and recognition of the prayers all around us. Prayers that are always present and never end—a constant invitation into the shared presence of God.
But we have to learn to listen.
In his book Gracias, Henri Nouwen describes prayer in this way:
Donald Stoker, an English priest, said to me last night: “Did you notice the night sounds here? When you go to bed you hear the bullfrogs croak. When you wake up at two in the night you hear the dogs bark. When you wake up at four you hear the cocks crow, and when you get up at six you hear the birds sing.” Indeed, there are no silent nights in Bolivia. And during the day the voices of playing children join the birds in their chatter. All these sounds come together to form a single unceasing prayer to the Creator, a prayer not of thoughts and words but of sounds and life. How sad it is that thinking often makes prayers cease.