Prayer is irksome.

If this isn't kindling for a long and loaded conversation, I don't know what is. My (wonderful!) small group has been reading and talking through C.S. Lewis' Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on prayer for the past few months, and it has been more than enlightening: it has been appropriately disturbing.



Here are a few excerpts from this week's reading...

"Well, let's now at any rate come clean. Prayer is irksome. An excuse to omit it is never unwelcome. When it is over, this casts a feeling of relief and holiday over the rest of the day. We are reluctant to begin. We are delighted to finish. While we are at prayer, but not while we are reading a novel or solving a crossword puzzle, any trifle is enough to distract us.

"Now the disquieting thing is not simply that we skimp and begrudge the duty of prayer. The really disquieting thing is it should have to be numbered among duties at all. For we believe that we were created 'to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.' And if the few, the very few, minutes we now spend on intercourse with God are a burden to us rather than a delight, what then? What can be done for--or what should be done with--a rose tree that dislikes producing roses? Surely it ought to want to?"

Wow.

My thoughts later... (Not that we are in need of my puny little thoughts after Lewis' profoundity, but it has been so stimulating to discuss these things as a small group that I thought it'd be neat to pass along a bit of what I've been processing. I wish I could hear your thoughts and insights and responses as well.)