Voices in thin places

If there is something that is true about the prayer life of the Christian person, it is that we are truly revealed when we take the time to pray. On the mount of the Transfiguration, Jesus has led those who are closest to him up the mountainside to a high place, or as they might call it, a “thin place”. It is a place where we can be close to God. It is a place where God’s presence can and is easily known. Do you have such a place? Do you have a place where you can go and know the presence of God?

He took others with him and they were near him when he started to pray, they listened in. His disciples listened to him pray. It reminds of when I was little and my father would sit on the edge of the bed and help me to pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord, my soul to keep. May his angels watch me through the night until I wake in morning’s light. God bless, Mommy, Daddy...” I share this with you because I remember later as a young adult, on my way to bed one night passing my parents’ bedroom and hearing my father pray the same prayer and asking God to bless the people around him. I found hearing him pray both a great treasure and a powerful encouragement to pray. It taught me something of my father’s faith and of his character. Perhaps this is why Jesus took his friends with him up the mountain. He wanted to reveal to them something of his own nature and character. As he prayed, his true nature and person shone through so that the disciples could perceive it.

And what did Jesus pray and talk about up on the mountain; what did he discuss with Moses and Elijah? They discussed his coming exodus. They talked about going into the city, his passion, his death, his resurrection and his departure through the ascension. And the disciples heard this. They had their faith confirmed. They had their hopes realized. They knew the prayers of their nation where being answered.

And then the greatest and most terrifying thing happened. They knew that they knew they were in the presence of the Lord and the LORD spoke to them from the cloud: “This is my Son, the Beloved, the Chosen, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

With that they found things as they used to be. The moment of prayer and of presence was seemingly gone and it was time to head back down the mountain. So if there is something that we need to keep in mind as we wait and watch the drama of Lent unfold, it is this: Prayer reveals our true selves and enables not only to talk to God and know that we are heard. We also need to stop and listen for God’s voice in those “thin places” that we might be used and obedient to God.

Jason+