experience
Research continues
In amongst all the other things punctuating life, the serious study on prayer continues quietly and unseen. It’s actually quite useful that I have mundane responsibilities keeping me out of the study for lengthy periods – gives the material I’m ingesting time to simmer and diffuse and settle.
That process has actually been helped by a friend who’s going through a very diffuclt time in his life questioning me about pain and suffering. Having to marshall my thoughts in order to give a semi-coherent response to his deep questions helps me sort out the theory from what I can accept or even believe. My own personal experience doesn’t bear out some of the most pious ideas, and I’m seriously allergic to platitudes.
Though I still have a lot of my own issues for which I can offer no satisfactory answer, I am gradually drawing up a workable framework within which to hang them. It’s a start. And I doubt very much if I will ever reach a comprehensive conclusion that covers everything. Some things may just have to be relegated to the category of ‘Mystery’ – which, when you’re considering the interface between heaven and earth, is just as it should be.
Next week I’m introducing the subject to a couple of quite different audiences and inviting their thoughts and reactions so that should help to refine my thinking too.