I understand it's harmful to lightly water grass too often for the roots turn up to get to the shallow moisture. Grass should be soaked so the roots will go down and survive a drought. I find my spiritual roots have this same characteristic. Inspiration is like a light shower. It's often a pleasant and even helpful experience, but I have to be careful not to go for inspiration too often—or at least not to be totally satisfied with inspiration. I need to create occasions so that I have the deep watering of meditation. For me, this comes in reading the old saints, the stalwarts of the faith, the catholic monks and thinkers. I have yet to see anything in their lives that fits today's motivational model. They knew profound suffering and out of those "dark nights of the soul" they came to know God ---really know Him. Today I want to give you a William Barclay prayer. I call it a prayer of foundation for it drives down some very deep piers on which we can build our superstructure.
"Lord, grant us:
In our work, satisfaction;
In our study, wisdom;
In our pleasure, gladness;
In our love, loyalty."
This I find profound, and I want to encourage your thinking. I have been rolling it about for some three or four months. Each of these phrases would be an excellent lesson or essay. Even the three opening words which we pass over so easily have tremendous meaning. For example, the greatest theological question facing America, as I see it, is whether Christ can be Savior without being Lord. If he can be Savior without being Lord, then our churches are our mission field. Next is the word "grant," which says that we have no rights to demand of God but all is of grace. It is all in His hands to bestow. We come with empty hands. Therefore everything must come by petition for "we have nothing but which we have received." The third word "us" speaks of the community of believers. Christianity is not practiced in individual isolation but rather in a communion that binds us together into the body of Christ. It creates a harmonious whole, each with his particular function and gift. The old hymn reminds me of this when we sing, "Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love." This is not a hymn to individualism, but to the church as an organism. Scott Peck has told me about his starting a foundation for community for he feels this is the greatest need——in fact, his new book which has been climbing the New York Times' best seller list is based on his experience and experiments in "community." Christianity is ultimately community.
William Barclay leads us in prayer, "Lord, grant us," and we are led by the Spirit to be bound up in love, one for another.
