I Want to Pray Like the Oak Ridge Boys

July 10th, 2008 | writing

Recently, my daughter and I have begun to pray by personalizing the scriptures. I say one line, and she repeats it after me. (She’s seven.) Every so often, I ask her if she wants to lead the prayer. She’s still a little shy about that, though.

The exercise is a good challenge to me to memorize more. But it helps her memorize, too.

I remembered all of this when I was looking at the 22 Words post yesterday. (I like that blog because Abraham Piper is a web content editor. Like me.)

He talks about teaching his so to pray as if he is just “talking to Jesus.” Like the old hymn I grew up with. “Have a little talk with Jesus.”

Several years ago when I tried this approach with my daughter. She has always been shy about prayer. It’s a failing of mine as well. So I explained that prayer was just like “talking to God.”

Man, she called me on it. “Dad,” she said. “God isn’t here.”

I stammered through a theological explanation that God IS here. Jesus lives in our hearts. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

But I couldn’t shake the honesty of her response.

Because no matter how much rhetoric we use, we can’t talk to God in the same way that we talk to people because God doesn’t talk back in the same way.

I don’t know what to with that thought. I don’t know where it takes me. I don’t know where it takes you. So let’s just watch the Oak Ridge Boys sing with butterfly collars and afros. Seriously, you have to watch this. They go totally nuts at the end.

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Cheryl Smith 4 months ago 1 point
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Mark,

Thank you for sharing such a beautiful conversation and for being an example to many for how to live out the faith, not perfectly but with a pure heart.

Did this video ever take me back! I still remembered all the words and harmonies from when I was a kid (and the afros). Will sing it today as I run.

Blessings my friend.

Cheryl

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christa allan 4 months ago 1 point
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First, thanks for link to 22 Words blog. Like anorexic twitter. Great site.

Profoundly honest statement by your daughter. She verbalized what I often feel in prayer when I attempt to start talking to God in some King Jamesian language. Not sure if it's God or me talking back asking me why the blazes I'm doing that. Sometimes, I think it's a way of providing a distance from God when I'm afraid of how he may answer.

Often, it's easier for me to journal my prayers/conversations. I can talk to God there in a way that's real or at least really sounds like me. I'd like my pen to float across the page in some magically spiritual God-response. So far, not yet. But after I empty myself on the page, and wait, I sometimes find myself writing what I believe is dialogue.

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Shep 4 months ago 1 point
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Authentic faith passing from father to daughter. I love it. But you gotta wonder what the Oak Ridge Boys woulda done if they'd had cordless mics.

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http://papapoet.com

nancy 4 months ago 1 point
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God is not here in the same way...He is even closer.
God does not talk to us in the same way...it is even better.
Goe does not know us in the same way as others around us...He made us and knows everything about us.

it is not the same as talking to a person
or listening to a person

but

it is better.

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nancy 4 months ago 1 point
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btw...i very much enjoyed the music

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B. Currant 4 months ago 1 point
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Aside: congratulations on having your interview picked up by other media. Terrific!

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Marcus 4 months ago 1 point
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Cheryl, thank YOU. Last time I shared this in a comment on a blog, I was thoroughly condemned by other commenters who lamented that I was a father. Ouch.

Christa, lately I've realized that sometimes prayer feels like I'm leaving a voice mail message somewhere, hoping God will check his messages and wondering if he'll ever ever return my calls.

Shep. Man, I loved that video. Good to see you here again.

Nancy, I believe what you're saying. I have to believe it because the evidence of my experience feels awfully lonely. But it is good to hear it from others. The "we believe" takes away some of the sting of loneliness.

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http://www.goodwordediting.com

Marcus 4 months ago 1 point
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B. Currant. Thanks! Here's my original interview with the head of Disney Parks. Here's the link to the Orlando Sentinel.

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marina 4 months ago 1 point
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I struggle to hear God speaking directly to me in words. He definitely speaks to me through other people, through His Word, through creation, through journaling. When I go to Africa (5x in the last 16 mo), that's when I really hear God speaking. Prayer and worship seem to flow naturally from me and I actually feel God's presence and favor. It reminds me of the song by Matt Redman, "Heart of Worship," which talks about how the music fades, all is stripped away and I simply come." For some reason, maybe the lack of physical amenities, maybe the different setting which is so humble and not about me, lends itself to hearing God in a different way.

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Audra Krell 4 months ago 1 point
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I had all of the 8 tracks of the Oak Ridge Boys when I was a little girl. Thank you for posting this, it just took me back to the time when I literally approached Jesus as a child. I want those times back and that is all he is asking, that I approach him with the heart of a child.

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real live preacher 4 months ago 1 point
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I'm always touched by how questions like that can be answered exactly in the opposite way depending on who asks and what season of life we are in. There are seasons when you need to talk to God like God is your friend. And there are seasons where that sort of thing is not the way you need to see prayer. Perhaps you've been seeing God a little too much as your best friend. I like the interaction with you and your daughter. Very nice. Very authentic.

Oakridge video...not so much but that's just me. ;-)

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