My Conversion Story

March 2008

On April 12, 1998 I was converted. My dormant prayer gene was activated and I haven’t touched the snooze button since. I name it conversion because I believe it was. I was converted from being a god-user to being a child and a friend of God. As with all my conversions, I didn’t initiate this one either. The One whose business is humanity did. Being a god-user has been hard to quit and in moments of weakness I slip. This addiction dies hard. The slot-machine-god I used catered to my satisfaction. I thank God I am running out of this currency. I hope I’ll never trip up again.

Don’t get me wrong. I still ask Abba (Thank you Jesus for teaching us to pray “Abba”!) for my daily bread and umpteen other needs. This I won’t outgrow. In this I hope to remain like a little child. I trust that by telling you more about what I was converted to you’ll come to see what I mean.
I was converted to seeing prayer as the language of the kingdom of God in creation and in the shaping of the image of God in me. I was converted to a balanced life of contemplation and action—to prayer as a way of life. This is the gist of “In everything by prayer and supplication, let your request be made…” Everything is life. While not everything in life is prayer, everything can become prayer.

First, my eyes were opened to prayer as the language of the Kingdom of God. I worked in Montreal, Canada with Haitian and Korean Christians. In every worship service I attended, we prayed in unison. I prayed in English, yet we were speaking the language of the kingdom.

There is a special language that God speaks and hears. He teaches us to speak it in prayer. There is no other way to learn it except through practice. As Jesus was about establishing the sure arrival of the Kingdom of God he spoke the language of love, faith,  hope, peace, right living, service, and contemplation. Slowly, the disciples understood this language and begged to be taught. “Our Abba in the heavens …” is private language reserved for Christ’s followers. Some people only learn it by rote.

Second, prayer is not only what I do, it’s also what God does. That’s a conversion worth noting. The way God is manifested in nature is prayer (See Romans 1; Psalm 8). God spoke nature into existence and that language is prayer. God prays by shaping, transforming, and creating new things. When he dotted the cosmos with his starry signature God was praying. When He painted the skies with its million hues and shapes he was praying. In the same way He continually gives canyons and rivers, trees and flowers, seas and mountains their endless configurations. There is no end to God’s variety of prayer in nature: amoeba and killer whales, sea horses and elephants …all of it is the language He speaks in nature. We may explain this scientifically, but we must also interpret what we see theologically. We are “His people and the sheep of his pasture!” Would we be less inclined to rob the earth of its many beauties (extinct and endangered species) if we thought of God’s work in nature as the prayer of God? We are the stewards of God’s prayer garden!

Not only is God skillful in speaking in nature, his expertise extends to us. The way he glorifies himself in me is prayer. As I pray in the language of the kingdom of God, (i.e. worshiping, loving, trusting, fasting, practicing patience, giving a cup of water, admiring his language skills, suffering, etc…) God takes my prayers and he shapes (recreates) his image into my whole being. He erases the past, writes the present, and hints at the future by prayer. He recreates in preparation for an unimaginable eternity. That eternal work of God, the work of conforming me into the image of Christ, His only begotten Son, is prayer. When my spirit communes with the Spirit of God in response to shaping my being, we are in the perfect union of prayer. God praying in me! (Feel free to shout in praise to the Lord here!)

Third, I was converted to a balanced life of contemplation and action. I was converted from the tyranny of the urgent work of ministry. Those of us who serve others know that there is no end to this way of life. Helping validates us. Doing makes us feel that we are achieving success. But all work and no pray makes the greatest among us full of dullness. I was converted from a boundary-less life of constant activity to a balanced life which includes contemplation of Jesus Christ, his kingdom, and his world. Prayer as a life demands this kind of balance. Contemplation is learning to rest in the presence of God by means of prayer, solitude, worship, and silence. Observing the world around, in, and beyond us, is prayer.

Walking with the Master in prayer is inclusive of all that life is. Everything can become prayer. Ready for a conversion?

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