“The nature of God is playful, that is why He hides. God is not only present when we can see Him, He is present when we can’t, and joy comes from recognizing God in places we never thought He would be. God hides in difficulty, He hides in suffering, He hides in poverty, He hides in failure, and He hides in the stories of our lives. Whatever our circumstance, whatever the status of our lives, God is present—invisible, hiding, waiting for us to discover Him, waiting for us to learn from Him in the shadows as well as the light.” (MichaelYaconelli, “Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith” (p. 82).

“That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” (Genesis 32:22-28)

Have you heard of the experience called the “Dark Night of the Soul”? This phenomenon describes a malady some of the greatest of all Christians have suffered from time to time. It was the same experience Martin Luther suffered that his melancholy threatened to destroy him. This is no ordinary fit of depression – instead it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of G-d or is wrestling with the fear that G-d has abandoned them.

Jacob wrestled with G-d without knowing it was G-d – or one of G-d’s angels. Either way Jacob had a “Dark Night of the Soul” when he was at Peniel. Though G-d was hidden from him through this experience, in his suffering, he earned a new name, and a new status with a blessing from G-d.

Yaconelli writes: “Whatever our circumstance, whatever the status of our lives, God is present—invisible, hiding, waiting for us to discover Him…”

For Jacob, it was in his willingness to wrestle, to lean into his difficulties, to struggle with his sinful past that he discovered that G-d was waiting for him. Just because we might be struggling, this does not mean G-d has left us. Most likely G-d is hiding in the places we least expect to see G-d, only to let us know we too are blessed in our trust and faith, trusting that G-d does not abandon us.

Pastor Dave

“Commentators have been puzzled at the passage in the amidah (“the silent prayer”), “for Thou hearest in mercy the prayer of every mouth.” We would expect the phrase to be “the prayer of every heart.” But the passage, we are told, is intended to remind us that it is the mercy of God to accept even prayers that come only from the mouth as lip-service, without inner devotion. However, this remark in no way denies the principle that kavanah, or inner participation, is indispensable to prayer. It is a principle that found a precise expression in the medieval saying: “Prayer without kavanah is like a body without a soul.” Yet, what is the nature of kavanah or inner participation? Is it paying attention to the context of the fixed texts? Thinking? Prayer is not thinking. To the thinker, God is an object; to the man who prays, He is the subject.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel, “Man’s Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism”)

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. 6But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.…” Matthew 6:5-6

When you have been a life-long Lutheran, or Methodist, or Catholic or Jew, and have worshipped often, you have lived a life of repeating and saying lots of prayers. Prayers are central to our worship – and they are supposed to be central to our personal lives as well. And yet, our prayers that we recite in worship can become rote and meaningless – unless we are paying attention and really focusing on them.

This is the idea Abraham Heschel is talking about when he talks about “Kavanah”. Based on Heschel’s comments, Kavanah must stand for a concept in Judaism about a worshiper’s state of mind or their sincerity or devotion during prayers. He calls it the “inner participation” of the individual during prayer. Reciting prayers are good – keeping our minds and hearts truly focused on the words and our devotion during those prayers is even more important.

G-d does hear every prayer – whether our hearts and minds are really in them or not. Wouldn’t it be good to do a “prayer check” once in a while – so that our prayers are not just “lip service”.

Pastor Dave