Prayer as Persistent Peace
by Dr. Charles Killian, 1963 BD I read this supposedly true story the other day. It’s the story of a small community out on the prairie several years ago. A man got a permit to open the first tavern in the town. The local church folks were so upset, they got together and prayed that God would somehow intervene. Lo and behold, a few days before the tavern was to open, there was a ferocious thunderstorm. Lightning struck the tavern and it burned to the ground. The church folks were surprised and pleased, until they received notice that the tavern owner was suing them as being responsible for the fire which destroyed the tavern. The church folks got an attorney who drafted a strongly-worded deposition denying the charge. The papers were presented to the judge. At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge said, “At this time, I don’t know what my decision will be, but this appears to be the situation: the tavern owner believes in the power of prayer and the church people don’t.” I don’t know whether there is a moral to this story or not, or if there is any point to it at all, but I think it could be safely said that just about everybody believes in prayer, but few practice the discipline. Yes, practice the discipline. If Jesus said anything about prayer, he made that one point clear—‘by far the most important thing about praying is to keep it at’. The images he uses in Scripture (Luke 11:5-8; Luke 18:1-8; Matthew 7:9-11) to explain all of this appear comical, as though he thought it was rather comic to have to explain it at all. Be ‘importunate’—persistent, Jesus says, not, one assumes, because you have to beat a path to God’s door before he’ll open it, but because until you beat the path maybe there’s no way of getting to your door.