I was browsing at Barnes and Noble's and came across this book. I picked it up and read it a bit while sipping my Cafe Mocha.
Heather and I often do this - going to the bookstore, picking out a tall stack of likely looking books, then reading a few pages of each while drinking foofy coffee or creme' drinks, leaving the losers behind to be reshelved and taking a few winners with us.
Religious books are a small category for me, but I've read more than a handful over the years. It always takes something meaningful to me before I'll make the effort to read a religious book. This time it was no different. I started reading and found something that caught my eye.
The thing that caught my eye was that somehow the authors had qualified what makes a "bona fide" prayer. They talked about what prayer is, and what prayer is not. They talked about it in such terms that it triggered a memory for me. It's odd that I can remember the experience exactly but not what year it was, although it was probably 2001.
At the time, I was living with my first wife east of Marion, and we had just returned from Wisconsin where she had purchased some lambs of a rare breed. While they weren't terribly expensive it was money and we didn't have a lot of money. While we were unloading them, one was terribly scared and started running around the yard. My wife told me to go catch it so that it wouldn't hurt itself. I suggested that we should just leave it alone - that trying to catch it would be more traumatic for the lamb than just leaving it alone.
She told me that we had to catch it, even though it was in a fenced enclosure. So I dutifully went to catch it, and spent several minutes making it more and more scared. Eventually it butted its head against the wire fence until it broke through, and ran the 100 yards down the lane and across the busy highway into the quarry across the road. Remarkably it did not get hit by a car.
My wife (at the time) asked me to go over and get it. So I went over and found it easily enough, but couldn't get close to it. I waited half an hour, and called it with a lamb's bleat until I was within six feet of it, then it made a break for it and went down by the lake. Remember, this was a large quarry so there was a large lake. I wandered down there and it jumped in the water. So, to add nonsense to nonsense, I peeled off my shoes and other leather items and jumped in to swim after it. Unfortunately, I should have peeled off everything except my briefs, so about 20 yards out in the lake I discovered that my wet clothes were literally dragging me under.
I finally made a good decision, and turned to head for shore. Each stroke was harder and harder, and I realized that I had not swum for years, so I was out of shape, and probably poor form to boot. Soon the water closed over my head and I was swimming under the surface, rapidly approaching that point where I would black out from no air. I redoubled my efforts, only to find I was still slowing down, and going farther below the surface. I could barely see the sun through the black water. I said to myself, "I don't want to die here, now, chasing a stupid lamb." Then I made a bargain and said: "God, if you will make it possible for me to reach shore alive, I will make a change in my life."
At that point, it could have gone either way. But I resolved that, if God would make it possible, I would do my part. I stroked as hard as I possibly could with my leaden arms and cramping legs, and the sun became closer, bit by bit until I broke the surface and could take one desperate breath, then a few more strokes and my feet touched the sandy bottom of the lake and I stumbled forward into a half-standing position and just breathed heavily for about five minutes. I could see stars and black spots in my vision and knew just how close it had been.
I knew that I would live, and would begin to make the necessary changes in my life. I looked over, and saw the lamb gasping for breath on the opposite shore. I shook my head, making the first decision of my changed life, and began to gather my things to stagger across the road and return to the house.
This was a huge turning point for me in my life, and it was the result of a bargain I made with God, in that life changing moment. I may share more about that life changing moment in the future. But for now, this book had reminded me of that life changing moment, so I picked it up and kept it.
In the book, the authors describe six types of prayers that God always answers. One of those types is the bargaining prayer that I had made. The example is given of the Biblical story of Abraham bargaining with God against the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, with Abraham hoping to save Lot and his family.
I'm not sure I enjoyed this book, but I think it did me some good. The authors use examples that are much more accessible than most of the usual religious books out there. The typical religious book will take a Bible verse and analyze it to death, saying a variety of things about it that are frankly difficult to understand and sometimes difficult to believe.
In "Six Prayers" the examples are drawn from movies you have at least heard of, if you haven't seen them; from popular TV series like "The Simpsons"; from classical mythology, and from popular science. So, this is a much more effective book in many ways. I was left understanding prayer in a more personal way, and also understanding more deeply how that swim in the lake had affected me.
The authors have a website at www.sixprayers.com, and the book is published by Tyndale House Publishers. At 277 pages it is not a long book, but I think it will take you a while to get through it, at least if you stop to think along the way.
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