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Passion
& Prayer
by Alan Cohen
The powerful movie Dangerous
Beauty recounts the story of Veronica, a 16th century Venetian courtesan
(prostitute for noblemen) who wins the hearts of her clients. Veronica is
beautiful, witty, and full of passion for life and her profession. Her clients
sense her terrific life force, and they are lifted from the grayness of their
lives.
The Great Inquisition overtakes
Venice, and Veronica is brought to trial on charges of witchcraft. The judge
sternly tells her that if she confesses to being a witch, her life will be
spared. In a stirring courtroom soliloquy, Veronica declares, "I
confess... I confess that I find more ecstasy in passion than in prayer. Such
passion is prayer."
For those of us who have been
taught that prayer or spirituality requires denying our passion, Veronica’s
statement may come as a shock. But, as Phillip Brooks noted, "Prayer is not
the overcoming of God’s reluctance, but the taking hold of God’s
willingness." And what is God’s willingness, but the experience of joy
and abundance in every area of life?
While giving a talk at a church
in a conservative area of the country, I noticed that nearly everyone in the
church looked the same. The women had the same hairdos, the men wore the same
suits, and most of the conversations fell within a thin slice of the middle of
the bell curve of what is socially acceptable. If you saw the movie Pleasantville,
you get the picture. Frankly, I felt frightened. I feared that if I had to spend
a lot of time in this area, I might die of boredom. I grew up in New Jersey,
live in Hawaii, and spend a lot of time in California. You get the picture.
Then a teenage fellow with
orange hair walked into the church. Now I confess that I have had judgments
about people who die their hair weird colors and have metal objects inserted in
various bodily orifices. But that day I was really glad to see that guy. He was
the only person in that church, as far as I could tell, who was making a
statement for individual expression.
At another time, I sat through a
fairly boring church Christmas service. As soon as the service was over and
people were milling out, some upbeat music came over the loudspeaker. I looked
up into the balcony and saw two teenagers who came alive and started dancing to
this music. Suddenly my heart lifted. It was the first shred of aliveness I felt
during the service. I think Jesus would have appreciated it, too.
Then there was the time I spoke
at a small church in the Midwest. That day the Sunday school teacher didn’t
show up, so the church elders took the class, which consisted of a half-dozen
boys about the age of 10, and stuck them in the first row of the church, hoping
this would keep the kids in line. My talk was on making the most of wherever you
are. You can imagine my surprise when I looked over to see all of these boys
sitting there with quarters in their eye sockets! At first I was jarred, then I
had to hand it to them. They were the only people in the church who put my
lesson into practice immediately!
A fun way to evaluate your
activities is by doing an "energy scan" on yourself and others in any
given situation. Have you ever seen a magazine or television advertisement for
home insulation, where they show a thermograph of a home in the wintertime? The
photo shows most of the home as blue, indicating the area that is
well-insulated. Some of the areas, especially around doors and windows, are
glowing red, indicating the places where heat is leaking out.
Over a long period of time we
have been trained to believe that life is about staying insulated rather than
glowing with passion. God, however, is most present and obvious where people are
happy and alive. This means that there is more genuine prayer happening at
football games than most churches. If churches could work up enthusiasm,
presence of attention, and spirit, as well as professional football does,
religion in our country would really rock. But many people walk out of many
churches more dead than alive.
If next Sunday we made a rule
that only those people who would really love to go to church, go, I wonder what
attendance would look like. The good news is that the energy in church would be
spectacular. I would rather teach to a small group who really want to be there,
than to a large group whose mind was on golf. To that group I would say,
"Please, go golf. Let the golf course be your church." Such passion is
prayer.
Wherever there is passion, there
is church. Wherever there is aliveness, there is God. True prayer is not
mumbling a set of words, but energetically expressing what makes you feel most
alive. When you love what you are doing, you are God in action.
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