Friday, June 02, 2023

Praying Peaces Me Together

 

(Green Lake Conference Center in Wisconsin - Linda and I will be here in three weeks!)

When I pray I am peaced (yes, 'peaced') back together. Since to pray is to live experientially in Christ, I am the recipient of His peace. I love the way Richard John Neuhaus describes the power of God's peace (shalom):


“This means the bringing together of what was separated, the picking up of the pieces, the healing of wounds, the fulfillment of the incomplete, the overcoming of the forces of fragmentation.” (Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry, 72)

Praying takes inner chaos and transforms it into order. The Hebrew word shalom means "peace" in the sense of things, or events, or persons, once distanced and in conflict come together. In praying, God peaces the heart together. This is heaven’s peace, experienced now in an unpeaceful world.

***
See my book Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.