Prayer In the Night: Prologue

 As I promised before, here is the first installment of my synopsis of Tish Harrison Warren's book, Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep *. A dear friend shared this book with me while I was going through a very difficult time last summer and I'm so happy to share it with you as well. Tish Harrison Warren is the author of one of my top three favorite books of all time, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life *. She has influenced my perspective on life, God, and how they all connect in so many ways. I love how she uses the historical practices of the church to explore everyday life and faith.

 This book is a deep expository of the prayer of compline, found in the Book of Common Prayer, which is primarily used by the Anglican church but has influenced other denominations such as Lutherans and Methodists. Before this has you heading off to read something else, or worse doom scrolling on your phone, I'd encourage you to stop and allow God to speak to you in a different way. Yes, this may not be what you're used to in your church's practice, but that doesn't mean that we can't learn something from it. Our Christian forefathers and the writings they have left behind for us have so much to offer.

 In the prologue of her book, Tish shares the tragic story of her first miscarriage - an experience many of my sweet friends can identify with. Her artful storytelling brings you into the moment with her and our hearts ache alongside her as she feels the desperate need to pray but doesn't have the words. In this situation she falls back on her heritage and teaching, she falls back on the historical prayers of the church. I love how she puts it, "For most of church history, Christians understood prayer not primarily as a means of self-expression or an individual conversation with the divine, but as an inherited way of approaching God, a way to wade into the ongoing stream of the church’s communion with him." (1) This concept of wading into an ongoing stream of the church's communion broadened my perspective on prayer. I had always seen it as a one-on-one communication between God and I, but this showed me my connection to my brothers and sisters in Christ, the global church, and how we cumulatively are the Bride of Christ and we come to Him together. The 12th Chapter of 1 Corinthians teaches us about the Body of Christ and the way we all play different parts in it, but we need each other. This idea of joining in the ongoing stream of communication is so beautiful to me. It's like a current in the ocean; I picture it like the turtles surfing on the East Australian Current in Finding Nemo. As we enter into prayer, we join in the flow of communication and are swept up with all the others around the world who are also talking with our Heavenly Father. Our hurts, our fears, our joys, our sorrows are all washed clean in the flow. We don't have to come up with just the right words, we don't have to have it all put together, we're not on our own. We can lean on our brothers and sisters, we can join with them, we can pray together.

 Tish used prayer in her hour of need because, "Through prayer I dared to believe that God was in the midst of my chaos and pain, whatever was to come. I was reaching for a reality that was larger and more enduring than what I felt in the moment." She needed to know that the pain, the fear, the absolute devastation she felt was not forever. She needed to experience something bigger than her terrible circumstances. Have you ever felt that way? The need for something bigger and stronger than the seemingly all-consuming hurt you feel right now? I know I have, many times. 

Here's the Thing: This prologue drew me into Tish's narrative. She helped me see that she was not alone and neither am I. We can learn something from those who have walked this road of faith before us. Will you join me?

(1) Warren, Tish Harrison. Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep (pp. 7-8). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 

(2) Warren, Tish Harrison. Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep (p. 8). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. 

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