{"id":9157,"date":"2012-05-28T10:15:30","date_gmt":"2012-05-28T15:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/?p=9157"},"modified":"2012-06-13T18:46:56","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T23:46:56","slug":"prayer-prostitutes-and-unmet-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/prayer-prostitutes-and-unmet-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayer, Prostitutes, and Unmet Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a title=\"antichi mestieri...\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/10171879@N06\/2544714495\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"antichi mestieri...\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2177\/2544714495_4b8fe82f58.jpg\" alt=\"antichi mestieri...\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<small><a title=\"Attribution License\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0; padding: 0;\" title=\"Creative Commons License\" src=\"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/compfight\/images\/cc.png\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> Photo Credit: <a title=\"Fabio Pierboni\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/10171879@N06\/2544714495\/\" target=\"_blank\">Fabio Pierboni<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.compfight.com\/\">Compfight<\/a>\u00a0(brothel menu)<\/small><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><small><\/small>On Sunday, I heard someone say, &#8220;Sometimes when I pray, I don&#8217;t feel anything.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Has this happened to you? It has for me.<br \/>\nThere&#8217;s no magic. It&#8217;s like talking to the wall.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Blah blah blah. <em>meh<\/em>.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes we approach prayer and other spiritual practices with certain expectations, right? We want an experience or we hope for some immediate return for our effort. It shouldn&#8217;t be dull, we think. It shouldn&#8217;t be lifeless.<\/p>\n<p><em>In trying to connect with God we wonder if it&#8217;s really a two way street.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Maybe it&#8217;s the same thing we wonder in our <em>other<\/em> relationships. <strong>Am I doing all the rowing on this boat?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In this, I&#8217;m reminded of the lessons from my seminary professor who made a point to tell us that Yahweh switched things up on his people\u2013most of the time. <strong>No victory was won the same way twice.<\/strong> Was God pushing the limits of their expectations? Probably.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if these variances happened precisely because God is <strong><em>personal<\/em><\/strong>. I wonder if God is <em>always the same<\/em> by way of consistently changing: A characteristic of a living God and ongoing relationship.\u00a0Usually personal beings resist manipulation, right?<\/p>\n<p>What happens when we want something to be predictable&#8230;a sure thing? A wife and a prostitute can do the same horizontal function, but there&#8217;s something about doing it for cash changes the whole thing&#8230;a lot, I assume.\u00a0The latter is less a relationship and more of a phlegmatic\u00a0transaction with the veneer of allure. The outcome is\u00a0<em>very<\/em> predictable. Hence, relationship as a commodity has a dehumanizing (or depersonalizing) consequence. (Refer to the above image posted outside a brothel. It&#8217;s a menu.)<\/p>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t it spiritually healthier for us when God shows us that he&#8217;s <em>not<\/em> coin operated or predictable, but rather relational and multifaceted? We wouldn&#8217;t want to be treated like a vending machine either, so maybe it makes sense that God would &#8220;keep things fresh&#8221;. Strangely, God risks frustrating us to foster growth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you&#8217;re feeling like you&#8217;re &#8220;praying to the wall&#8221; lately, realize that you are the verge of a <span style=\"color: #008000;\">growth-enhancing switcheroo<\/span>&#8230;better named: a new movement of the divine.<\/strong> Be on the look out for it.<\/p>\n<p><em>Oh, and when you spot it then it&#8217;ll change again soon.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Through this God shows us that he&#8217;s intricate and personal, not static and mechanized. He draws us into something deeper. He gives us something for an advancement of faith, sight unseen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Where are you right now?<br \/>\nOn the verge of change or knee-deep in a fresh one?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thoughts or comments?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Sometimes when I pray, I don&#8217;t feel anything.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5626,76],"tags":[1183,1472,6538,4459,60,5733,5731,2831,3041,3083,3149,3195,74,75,6539,5730,5732,3597,3784],"class_list":["post-9157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spark-my-muse","category-spirituality","tag-expectations","tag-god","tag-humor","tag-israelites","tag-prayer","tag-praying-to-the-wall","tag-prostitute","tag-relationship","tag-sex","tag-silence","tag-soul-care","tag-spiritual-formation","tag-spiritual-growth","tag-spiritual-practices","tag-spirituality","tag-transaction","tag-vending-machine","tag-victory","tag-yahweh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9157"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9161,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9157\/revisions\/9161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}