When I was in college, I had two close friends, Mark and Don. Mark and I have kept in touch ever since, and he remains one of my best friends. When we graduated, he went to his first job in Illinois and I went to seminary in St. Paul, but we still got together whenever we could. When he moved back to Minnesota and we were dating our future wives, we went out together, the girls got along well, and they also have become good friends. We were at each other’s weddings, we know each other’s extended families, we’ve watched our kids grow up and get married, and now we enjoy telling each other stories of the grandchildren. We have traveled together, we email back and forth, and we get together for dinner on a regular basis. Our friendship has grown and deepened over the years.
For some reason, my other friend Don and I got out of touch after college. I did not know what he did or where he went. One day, about twenty years after we had last seen each other, Don gave me a call. He had seen something about me in our college alumni newsletter, and it mentioned where I was living. He said he would be passing through my town, and asked if we could meet for lunch. “Sure Don,” I said, “that would be great.” It was great– for about a half hour. But then after we had given each other a brief summary of what we had done the last twenty years, and talked about some college memories, the conversation started to lag a bit. It was still the same good old Don, but we had been out of touch too long. We didn’t have much in common anymore, we hadn’t shared any experiences for twenty years, we did not know each other’s families, and we just ran out of things to talk about. Given the chance to spend more time together, the old friendship probably would have been renewed. We exchanged addresses and phone numbers (no email then yet), and we said we’d keep in touch. But we didn’t. I never saw Don again. I googled his name a while back, and what I found was his obituary.
It is by spending time together that relationships are given the opportunity to grow and deepen. When there is no time spent together, and when there is no effort to keep in touch, even the very best relationships can die. We are, each one of us, invited to have a relationship with God; an eternal relationship. Much of the Biblical language used to describe our place before God is the language of personal, human relationships. The words used are father, child, friend, bride; all images of the closest of relationships. God wants to have a personal relationship with you. Our God is not an abstract, philosophical concept. God is our Father and we are his children. Jesus is our Friend, as we sing in the old favorite hymn. The Holy Spirit is our Comforter. Our relationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit lives and grows just like any other relationship– by time spent together. The ways God has given to us to spend time with Him are worship, prayer, and the reading of His Holy Word. God, in His infinite grace and mercy, freely gives this relationship, but without keeping in touch, without spending any time together, that relationship can shrivel up and die– just like my friendship with Don. God does not leave us, but we leave Him. If we insist on going our own way, without God, God will, in the end, honor that awful choice and let us have our way; and we will enter eternity without Him. You do not want that to happen. You will want to keep that relationship alive by finding ways to spend time keeping in touch with your heavenly Father.
The Christian life has been called ‘the Great Conversation.’ That is a good way to describe this time we spend with God. When my old friend Mark and I and our wives get together, we spend most of the time in conversation. Weekly worship can be seen as a conversation– God speaks to us in the reading and the preaching of His Word, and we speak to God in our prayers and hymns of praise and thanksgiving. Worship is that central, most basic way that we keep in touch with God. But personal prayer and your own daily reading of God’s Word are also important parts of the conversation. God speaks to you in your own personal reading of His Word, and you speak to God in your own words and meditations.
There is a much higher percentage of Christians who attend weekly worship than who pray and read the Bible daily. Worship is easier. All you need to do is get your body into a church at the right time on Sunday morning and pay attention. Worship is also, I believe, the primary way to keep in touch with God. It is, after all, one of the Ten Commandments to “Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep it Holy.” But personal prayer is also commanded. In Matthew 6:6 Jesus tells us, “When you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your heavenly Father who is unseen.” Jesus himself gave an example of such prayer in his own life. As we read the Gospels, we often see Jesus going off by himself to pray. If Jesus needed time alone to pray for guidance and strength, who are we to think we can get by without it? But we do know that this is a more difficult discipline, and far fewer people engage in it. It is indeed difficult to find the time, difficult to deal with the distractions and interruptions, difficult to keep your mind on what you are doing, and difficult to know what to say and what to expect. It isn’t like worship where you just have to show up. In personal prayer, you have to provide the program, and that’s not easy. I have had daily devotions for over 50 years, and I rarely miss a day– and yet, I still struggle with its difficulties.
The next few mediations will be about prayer. (continued…)
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O God of Peace, who hast taught us that in quietness and confidence shall be our strength: By the might of Thy Spirit lift us, we pray, into Thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
–Book of Common Prayer (1549)
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“What a Friend We Have in Jesus” (with Granny):
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