Monday, March 31, 2014
M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled, one of the best-selling books of all-time, tells a story about after he became a Christ-follower. He started going to a local convent for spiritual guidance. A sister there asked him about time for praying – personal celebration. Peck said, "Oh, I pray. I pray when I'm out walking, when I'm going to sleep at night, when I'm listening to a patient and when I don't know what else to do. I pray a lot.” She pressed him gently, "Do you set aside any specific times to pray?" "Well, no," he said, "that seems unnecessarily rigid and un-spontaneous." She pushed back again, "Maybe so, but what I hear you saying is that you simply pray to God when you feel like it, whenever it's convenient to you. That sounds a lot like a one-way relationship to me; as if you are willing to relate to God only on your terms. If you love God as much as you say you do - and I suspect you do - then I think you owe it to Him to set aside some times to be available to Him whether you feel like it or not, some time that will be His and not just yours." Peck says he found that difficult to argue with and so he set about carving time out of his life every day when he says he does “'nothing' in the world's terms other than attempt in my own inadequate way to be available to God.”
My daughter’s pastor shared this story from Scott Peck as part of her sermon one Sunday when she was talking about the difference between “praying” and “being available to God.” Putting this into action has been a turning point in my own daily prayer life. You can read about it in part 2 of this blog, “Call from God on my Samsung Galaxy.”
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