When being rubbish is being good!

We often bang on about how being a Christian is about having a relationship with God. I long to have this relationship with God. Being able to talk to the God who created and sustains the whole world is an incredible privilege and one there can be no doubt I do not make the most of. However, there can be no denying that talking to God is very different to talking to our friends. For a start he is very different to any friends we might have (how many friends do you have who are morally perfect and have the power to create the world with a word?) however, perhaps the biggest difference is that when I talk to a friend they normally respond audibly. When I pray to God the conversation often seems to be very one way. So we go on about it being a relationship often failing to recognise that it is completely different to any other relationship we will ever have.

It is difficult to maintain a conversation with someone when the communication so often seems to revolve around you talking. Over time your prayer's develop and with experience, thought and biblical study you sort of learn how to make this bizarre sort of conversation, this unique relationship work.

However, on Tuesday I went round to a guy from our church's house who's only been a Christian for a few months. At the end I asked him if he'd like to pray and he said that he would but that he was rubbish. So he prayed and it was in many ways nothing like how I pray. It was pretty unstructured and even the content was very different. However, I have to say it I found it the most amazing thing. Here was a guy who was genuinely just talking to God as he wanted to and saying the things he wanted to say to God.

I try my hardest to be as real as I can in my prayers however I inevitable carry into my prayers my own personality, my own theology, my own experiences and just a whole lot of other baggage. I found that sharing in someone who seemed to have so little baggage's prayer was an incredible blessing. I often think that when it comes to prayer the more rubbish they are the better they are.