The Folly of Prayer

I began reading The Folly of Prayer sitting in the Bozeman, MT airport.  A middle aged lady sitting across from me made eye contact at one point and had a distraught look on her face. 

After a bit more reading we all got up to board the plane and the lady had forgotten her drink on the ground.  I got her attention and she politely said she didn’t want any more of it and she’d just as much leave it on the floor to be picked up.  She had a Minnesota accent.

Garrison Kiellor’s stories about old Lutheran women began to swim in my mind.  I thought I was going to get a theological pummeling.  It began, "Is that book you are reading pro-prayer or against prayer?"

"It’s definitely for it."

"What types of prayer, what is he saying about prayer? I love reading books like that."

"I don’t really know what it’s about yet, I’ve just read the introduction."

"What are you doing reading a book like that."

"I am reading it to review it on my blog."

"Is that your full time job? How much do you make doing that?"

"I don’t make anything!  I have an office job.  I do this on the side…"

I eventually steered the conversation toward my recent graduation with a MA and a discussion about Barbara Kingsolver.

There is a certain folly to conversations like this that Matt Woodley wants us to hold onto concerning prayer.  His book, The Folly of Prayer, is not a book on how to pray better (with five easy steps!) as much as a book that tries to demythologize prayer as a saintly, silent, and stoic spiritual discipline.

Woodley describes eleven different types of payer in the book: Groaning, Physical, Desperation, Mystery, Absence, Argument, Journey, Dangerous, Paying Attention, God’s Heartbeat, and Love.  In each type, Woodley presents not only the joys of praying this way but also the deep frustrations of prayer in certain modes.  His strongest chapters are his more mystical one’s, as he aptly describes how prayer in the midst of God’s absence and prayer as God’s Heartbeat are both harrowing and triumphant spiritual experiences.

Woodley defines prayer as practicing the presence and absence of God, and as such he is keenly aware of the spiritual disciplines not being about sustaining "God moments" but instead about long term spiritual renewal, the ebb and flow of awakening and absence that permeates all of our lives.  And most importantly, prayer is not about production.  As Woodley says,"prayer is notoriously unproductive" in the sense that it does not cause something to happen or change a circumstance all the time (152).  Instead, the joyful folly of prayer, is that prayer is about an authentic relationship with God, a spiritual discipline that gives us the opportunity to be real with God as we are with our spouse or best friend—and an opportunity for us to be present in God’s reality (or realize his presence in his absence).

This book was very helpful to me as a positive outlook on prayer in God’s absence.  How often are the prayers we pray similar to the Psalms?  We always try to praise, praise, praise, but our days are no different than David’s.  Sometimes we should be angry, or in danger, or suffering, or lamenting, or confused, or bewildered, or dreadfully aware of God’s absence.  Yet, we should continue to pray, even when it seems unproductive, for that is the joyful, wonderful, and beautiful folly of the authentic prayer life.

The Folly of Prayer: Practicing the Presence and Absence of God
Matt Woodley
InterVarsity Press
$10.20 (Amazon)