Prayer's Block

Writers often talk of struggling with writer’s block.  I know something of this struggle.  I call it sermon block.  It happens when I sit in front of the computer with all my study resources, notes, thoughts and responses laid out in front of me to put a sermon together.  My body says “I’m ready!”  But my mind seems to be saying,  “Not a chance!”  So I sit in front of a blank screen waiting for some moment of inspiration just to get started.

I also suffer, from time to time, with what could be  called  “prayer’s block”.  It’s  similar kind of dark hole where prayer seems a fruitless exercise of going through the motions, feeling little if any connection to anything or anyone remotely close to the presence of God.  Granted I sometimes act as if prayer can be turned on and off like a faucet , an iphone, or a light switch.  And I have come to realize I pray better when I take a minute or two  to “get in the mood for prayer” (like sitting silently or quietly reading a passage of scripture or simply taking some deep breaths).

But there are times when even getting in the mood to pray doesn’t aid the connection I’m seeking. Prayer’s block sets in.  All prayers have been there sometime, right?  When words  or prayers just don’t come. So what to do?

 What if we “pray the block?”  What if we simply start by acknowledging where we are….blocked… staring  at a blank computer prayer screen or a blank sheet of prayer paper?   

I tend to see these times as failures on my part.  But what if….what if God sees my prayer’s block as an open door to come seeking us?    It may be at these time that we come to realize “that when nothing seems to be happening that the most important things are really taking place.”  ( When the Well Runs Dry, Thomas Green, pg.34)

What important things?  Well, like trust, assurance, hope, confidence that God is working with us and we are not yet aware of the quiet work God is doing in us, with us or through us.

Prayer blockages are worth pondering.