View from Above

' O' Lord, Our Lord, How Majestic is Thy Name in all the Earth...'

                                                                                          ~ Psalm 8:9




Many years ago, I sat in the cockpit of a C-130 Hercules as we flow over Birmingham, Alabama.
From the seat, I looked to might right and saw night descending across the eastern portion

of the American continent; but to the left, the west was still holding daylight.
Below,  I could see roads and rivers, buildings and backyards, people and cars; one person being chased by flashing blue lights, while another was being transported in an ambulance with red flashing lights in a completely different part of the city, the two had no connection to one another whatsoever and were miles apart.
While I knew some things were large and others much smaller; everything had the appearance of being small because I was above them.


I could see everything and anything I wanted to see; teaching us once again that Air Superiority one of the most important factors during times of military conflict.


Spiritually, the view I had so long ago of the earth and its contents from that cockpit of the rumbling plane is the permanent view of God Himself, perpetually, continuously and eternally.
And to Him, we must seem extremely small, in size physically and in the realm of eternity, to One who endures from 'everlasting to everlasting.'


To place it in another context, if our Milky Way galaxy was the size of North America, our solar system would fit into a coffee cup.
Amazing, isn't it.


Yet, it is prayer, true prayer to a true God, which helps us draw near and know that we are not as tiny as we may think; that we are not so small in the universe or in eternity.


Prayer helps correct us while drawing us near to the purity and holiness of God.
Prayer corrects our innate irresponsibility as humans to think of ourselves in a self-centered, self-glorifying manner.
In other words, it cures what I call 'the fuzzy navel disease.'


You've seen this disease even if you don't realize it; it effects people in such a way that they are so centered on themselves or on someone else that they can see the fuzz in another person's navel without ever looking beyond that focus.


To put it in a more spiritual context, prayer helps us stop thinking of how God should serve us and our needs in life, and then we begin to serve Him better through our lives.
And Christians learn this through prayer, though the prayers offered may be in anguish, in pain, or even in doubt - yet, the result tends to be the same in the end.


The great patriarch Job learned of prayer's value to refocus our hearts during a time of self-pity and anger.
He saw how magnified and how far God is truly above us in all always.
You and I would do well if we meditated on the same.

True prayer, not conditional prayers, not ambiguous prayers, not prayers with wrong motives, but true prayer - lifts the believer above the pettiness that occurs in life.
It can even displace the horrible circumstances one faces, as God adjusts our hearts and minds to see the true context of pain, cancer or death.


It is true that in the physical, grand scheme of things we seem to be tiny and insignificant; yet, God has made humans valuable, significant, important and, once grace is received, something that even angels desire to be like.
The reason - humanity has been chosen as God's unique creation, the apex of all His holy works; but not just humanity, it is true for you and I individually.


In prayer, in a true time of communion with God, we should feel humbled and small; while at the same time, we should feel empowered and strong.
The difference is not in ourselves; but rather, in what God has made the Christian through the sacrifice and grace of Jesus Christ.


Now, I do realize this may sound somewhat odd to some believers in the Lord; that's OK.
It's not that we have differing opinions because one of us is absolutely wrong; we may differ because we have forgotten, or have never known, what it was once like in our relationship with God.


You see, there was a time, a time long ago, when conversation and communion with God was as natural and normal as the involuntary beats of your heart or the breath you draw at this moment.
Prayer was not the vehicle by which we talked to the Divine; the state of man's communion with God was a personal relationship in the presence of God Himself. Walking and talking with Him was a daily occurrence, if not more regular.


Since the fall of Adam and mankind's rebellion against the command and will of God, each passing generation seems to have become more and more removed from our Creator.
As a result, today - even among Christians - we are off our theological axis as our moral and spiritual equilibrium is skewed.


One problem Christians have with prayer  today is a problem never encountered by Adam nor by Jesus when He was on the Earth; today's believers will pray and they don't even know if they have been heard after they say, 'Amen.'
Maybe if you and I would pray in a manner appropriately we would see better results.
Maybe if we would stop 'directing' our prayers to God, as if we are organizing a military unit; maybe if we would stop 'ordering' our prayers like a lunch item off a menu and maybe if we would actually ask for specific things that we can see answered - then, maybe we can see the evidence of God moving and answering our petitions and thereby bolstering our faith, giving us a greater desire to serve and commune with God.


When a person prays, we are actually asking the Sovereign Creator of the Universe to suspend all natural laws and sensibilities on earth, for ourselves.

That's what we're asking and we have no idea how it works; but, as I can attest, be assured prayer does indeed work.


When a person prays a prayer, their words somehow cross from our material/physical world into a realm which is neither physical nor material.
It is immaterial and spiritual; it is God's domain.
Yet, in that invisible world, we do not know how our prayers work when received by God Himself.
That invisible, spiritual world seems less real to us than it did to Adam; maybe it's because he had met with God continuously and was the direct handiwork of the Almighty. Or maybe it is because we haven't made it real in our own hearts and minds.


This is not a new problem; of all the things the disciples could have asked Jesus to teach them, they asked not to learn to preach, or prophesy, or speak in tongues, or sing,  or reach the masses or anything else that is normally associated with the various sects of evangelical Christianity.
The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.


And Jesus began then, what is now known as the Lord's Prayer.
His first words, 'Our Father;' these may very well be the key to every prayer; our understanding of the very nature of God Himself.


We tend to pray downstream rather than going to the source of the flow; it is from the mouth of God Himself by which every person lives and is sustained.
We tend to pray as if God needs to be informed and updated on all the things that are happening in our lives; sometimes, I begin to think that God may get bored with the same information He already knows, similar to how one would get bored in the middle of a movie they have seen 79 times.
We tend to pray in a manner which invites God to help us overcome whatever horrid circumstance we find ourselves in at the moment; rarely do I ever hear one pray who asks God to change their character so that these situations will not be entered into from the beginning.


But....
If a Christian will start with God, begin with 'Our Father,' approach the Source of all, they will soon realize God already knows, He already cares, and He is already moving before your thoughts were directed into words.
God knew of my cancer before it was ever discovered or diagnosed; He was also working to remove it in an unexplainable manner before the idea to ask ever became a notion in anyone's mind.


In communion with God through prayer, a person will also discover that His grace descends.
It is God Himself who bears the primary responsibility for the Earth and all its inhabitants; it is His grace that sustains us through the trembles and terrors of life.


In that bird's eye view from the cockpit I received a small portion of what God sees constantly. He sees you. He knows you. He loves you.
If you begin with God, your prayers will change because you will change.


And only prayer, true prayer, can change our hearts to become more like His.


Until next time, win one for the good guys.