The Way She Prayed

She was praying.

We were in a meeting yesterday of our Conference’s scholarship team for Africa University (http://www.africau.edu) and Martha was there as a guest.

From Liberia.

Invited to open the meeting with prayer, she startled me when she began.

More like, Martha completely caught me off guard.

She was not formal.

Her prayer wasn’t formulated, nor was it haphazard.

Quite the opposite: I felt like an intruder in a holy moment.

How many times have you and I prayed either alone or in a group, Our Father who art in heaven?

And for years we’ve tried being more inclusive than the classic presentation of The Holy Trinity as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Wanting to keep gender out of discussions about God, we instead use such images as Creator, Savior, Holy Ghost.

I cannot imagine how many times I’ve read, heard, preached and taught about Jesus praying to God with the word Abba. Which means Father or could perhaps be translated even more intimately, more accurately.

Martha opened our meeting by praying, “Daddy God….”

The conference table became our altar, our meeting room a prayer closet.

Martha marched right up to The Throne of Grace introduced the rest of us to her “Daddy God.”

So much more to tell you, but let this suffice for now: we had church.

Martha taught us about prayer…by praying.