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Biography
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"Prayer that Transforms" I grew up in a praying home. I saw my dad on his knees at night before he would go to bed. My mother prayed for our neighbors who came seeking advice or comfort. My brother and I were taught to pray almost as soon as we could speak. My parents talked to God as if God was sitting in the room with us. My dad had a Sunday morning broadcast called, “It's Prayer Time.” He would share community announcements, prayer requests, and gospel songs by artists like James Cleveland and Mahalia Jackson. And, of course, there was the dedicated time for prayers at the beginning of each broadcast. Now, after the Sunday morning broadcast, we would go to worship, where there were more prayers. The deacons prayed during devotions while the congregation accompanied them with intermittent responses of “Oh, Lord,” and “Thank you Jesus.” Part of the liturgy at my congregation was the gathering of the choir in front of the altar at mid-procession softly singing “Sweet Hour of Prayer” as my father, the pastor, prayed. His voice would rise and fall in a pattern of pitch that carried each praise and petition like incense rising before the throne of God. I grew up in a praying family and community. I learned that individual and corporate prayers are important for our life together on this planet. Our intercessions for one another and the Creation, infused with God's love, become the cry for justice, peace, and the reconciliation that God desires. The Scriptures invite us to pray. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” Jesus taught his disciples that prayer is a conversation with a loving God. Yet, you and I know things still go wrong. People suffer and die. There are wars, conflicts, and violence across this globe. There are atrocities that are too horrible to speak. And, even though there is enough for all, millions are still hungry and lack the minimal resources for human dignity and life. Many people suffer with addiction, abuse, deferred dreams and broken hearts. As a pastor, I am sometimes asked that age-old question, “If God cares and hears our prayers, why is there so much pain and suffering?” I certainly don't claim to have an answer for the question of Theodicy. However, as Christians we look to the cross to see God's love and care. Life does brings us the mystery of suffering, and God's answer is Jesus. In Christ, we see God's cosmic hospitality. But when we are in the middle of the struggle, the love shown to us in Christ can seem distant. There are times in our lives when praying can seem like pounding on the locked door of a reluctant friend at midnight, asking for bread, or going before an unjust judge seeking justice. This feeling was expressed by a friend of mine, Bart Campolo. Bart lives out his ministry in a community where kids contend with neighborhood drug dealers and street life. He recently wrote that he felt like, “praying is what you do because sometimes it seems to be all you can do.” At that time, Bart had developed a relationship with a young man who was bi-polar, learning disabled with A.D.D., had a drug habit and a criminal record. It seemed that this young man's life was over before it could get started. There didn't seem to be enough power of prayer to transform this young man's situation. But, then things began to turn around, turn around for the better in this young man's life. Bart wrote, “We adults put our hands on him and I prayed out loud, thanking God for the good that was beginning to happen and asking for more. At the end of the day,” Bard said, “I may not understand or often enjoy prayer, and I may hate it when it's all you can do, but I'm definitely not above it and I never hope to be.” Well, like Bart, for many of us the practice of prayer can sometimes be difficult. The problem seems too great and the pain too severe to speak about. At those times it's good to remember the promise that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we don't know how or what to pray. So, does prayer change things or us? I'm a witness that prayer has changed things in my own life—and prayer has changed me. There have been times in my life when I have felt like giving up. Times when it seemed my prayers were in vain. Over ten years ago I became an intercessor for my brother. My brother and I were baptized together as small children. After we became adults, I learned that he had been sexually abused as a child by someone close to the family. By the time I learned of my brother's abuse, he had spent his life addicted to alcohol and drugs. As I watched him grow older faster than time, I prayed for him in the morning on the way to work, during the day, on the way home from work and into the night. I prayed shamelessly, relentlessly. My brother died six years ago at the age of 48. Even though I did not get the answer I longed for, I am persuaded that the same God who received both of us at our baptisms, received my brother at his death. Sometimes we may pray for years without receiving an answer. Time passes and we lose hope. But, do we always recognize the answer to our prayers? Years ago I attended an event. At that time I was a coffee drinker. At the end of a plenary session, I was networking and I missed the coffee break. Everyone had returned to the next session and I was at the table looking for coffee. I was frantic, trying to find the coffee, when I saw someone who looked like they were hotel staff and so I pleadingly asked, “Can you please tell me where they have taken the coffee?” She smiled, and said, “Sure, there it is.” And, indeed there it was, right in front of my eyes. It was in a short, round chaffing dish looking pots. I was looking for tall, columnar urns. The coffee was in my face all the time, but I couldn't see it because I was looking for it to appear in a certain way. Sometimes, the answers to our prayers are right in our face, and we miss them because they do not fit our paradigms. Several years ago I visited Nairobi, Kenya and worshiped at Uhuru Highway Lutheran Church. The pastor there told us a story of how the congregation had been transformed. Now, when he first arrived, he said the congregation was only a few dozen people at worship and they had a pressing debt of over $10,000. The building needed repairs, and there was a complete sense of hopelessness, no energy for moving forward. After 40 days of fasting and prayer, the congregation felt led to hold a service of rededication of their space and the people to God. This service was a turning point. Shortly following that event, the debt was paid, attendance went from 25 to 225, and the offerings went from $15 a week to $600. Also, the people began to see mission opportunities that they had not seen before. The first was in the office building directly across the street from the church building. The members recognized an opportunity to offer Bible study and prayer for the workers. After that, the congregation began to reach out in the wider community and to serve neighbors outside the city. This congregation had seen the building across the street from their church building for years, but had not discerned or seen the mission opportunity that was available for them. In order for the congregation to move forward, it had to change. It needed to see things differently. It needed to change its perspective. The day I worshiped there the congregation was filled with love, hope and joy in the Lord. People were everywhere, all ages. The congregation had been transformed from nearly dead to very much alive! Prayer can transform us to see what God is already doing in our midst. Prayer can open us to new possibilities and give us peace in difficult circumstances. Prayer can change our internal images so we can perceive God's answer. Prayer that transforms is the kind of prayer Paul wrote about in the letter to the Philippians. Paul encouraged them to pray rather than worry: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Thanks be to God. Conversation with Wyvetta Bullock Lillian Daniel: Wyvetta, thank you for sharing that story about your brother with us. I'm aware that there are so many people out there whose lives are going well and have the trappings and appearance of success and yet they carry this terrible burden of a brother or a sister or a grown child whose life is going so differently. How did you maintain your sense that your prayers were working and meant something after your brother passed? Wyvetta Bullock: Well, it was difficult. And I think the way I was able to do it was to live on the prayers of other people. There was a community praying for me—my husband, my friends, my congregation—because there was a moment, a long moment in fact, where I really didn't want to talk to God. I really didn't feel like I had anything to say. But because people were praying for me, my heart did stay open and eventually, slowly, I was able to begin that conversation once again. Daniel: That's very similar to the woman who was suffering with the incredible pain for fifteen years and talked about how she lost her ability to pray and others prayed for her. She mentioned that there were things that people said to her in that time that were unhelpful. Were there things that people said to you that were unhelpful? Bullock: I think when people say things like, “God loved him more,” or “God picks a flower out of the garden,” they really are trying to be comforting and sympathetic, but for me it really wasn't what I wanted or needed to hear. I think just really beginning to trust in a loving God again who claimed us at our baptism was really what helped me to come back. Lydia Talbot: Your brother's name? Bullock: Thomas. Talbot: Thomas. Did he know that you were praying intentionally for him? Bullock: Oh, very much so. Talbot: The knowledge that others are praying for you is a critical part of the healing process. How did he react to that? Put some nouns on it. What did your prayers sound like? Bullock: Well, as I began to pray for him when I found out about the abuse, I really was praying that he would be able to forgive the abuser because I realized in my conversations with him that he was really locked into that pain and anger. So I prayed God's mercy and grace in his life to heal him so that he could forgive. I also prayed the Scriptures for him. There are scriptures, particularly in Ephesians the first chapter, where I would just read that whole chapter and insert his name wherever there was a pronoun or wherever you could insert a person's names, because there were times when I didn't have words. Talbot: I love how you began your message, “I grew up in a praying home,” and the image you had of your father on his knees at night before he went to bed. What image do you think your own children, David and Karen Ann, see and have of you in prayer at home? Bullock: My husband and I kneel to begin our day, every day, early morning in prayer together. And often times by the time Karen is up and is ready for school, we invite her to come and join us and sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't. So certainly she has seen us model prayer. But not only at that particular time in the morning, but when we're driving in the car and something happens or we get news about something and we may whisper a prayer. But even more than that, I invite her to pray. Even if it's just to open the prayer or to close it so that she understands that her relationship with God is the same as mine and she has that freedom to have that conversation at any time, any place, wherever she needs to. Daniel: One of the things that has marked your calling and your ministry has been a passion for developing leadership in the church. What's the relationship in your mind between a faithful leader and the practice of prayer? Bullock: Oh, thank you for asking! Faithful leaders, I think, pass on the faith. I think one of the things that faithful leaders do is show a model or an example in their spirituality. I think it's very important that leaders have a priority for their spiritual life. And prayer is one of the practices, I think, of a strong, vital, spiritual life. So to be a faithful leader, from where I see it, you can't really do that without having that strong, faithful, prayer life. Sometimes that means that, yes, you spend a lot of time, but sometimes it's just being open so that you are ready to hear the voice of God. Talbot: Wyvetta, can you talk about what an authentic prayer really is and what it contemplates, as opposed to the expressions of people who so often want something material, a new car or money or material possessions? Bullock: I think prayer does come from the heart. Luther said that he encouraged people to pray the Scriptures. One of the things I find is that it's helpful. The words of Christ, the words in the Psalms. So I think that when we return God's word to God, I think those prayers are authentic, as you will, and move us into understanding God's will for us. I think there are times when we all cry out for things that we feel we need or we want. And so any cry from the heart, I think, in that conversation with God is authentic for that person. But if I understand your question, I think as we go in our faith journey and as we really want to go into this deep life of prayer, that we search God's word. What has God already said about this situation? Or what has God already called us to through the life of Christ? By lifting up the Scriptures in our prayer, I think that aids us and gives us a way into that conversation with God. I want to say here that I don't think prayer is “works righteousness.” I don't think that my ability to pray is what's important or how I pray, either by a formula or by using certain words. I think that God has already graced us in Christ with everything we need for life on this planet, and I do believe that prayer is our living out of that relationship. Daniel: So I'll give you a hard, quick question with just a little time to answer. Is it ever OK to pray for a new car? Bullock: Well, I wouldn't say yes or no. I think it would depend on the situation. I think certainly there are ministries that need transportation. You just have to put the situation there. But I think once we begin to pray and seek God's will, our prayers do change. And I think we change and we realize that we have what we need already around us as God opens our eyes to see it. Talbot: And therein the gratitude. Bullock: Yes. Daniel: Thank you so much, Wyvetta. |
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