Or the penultimate and ultimate times align perfectly in a kairos moment, and we experience the heavenly reality on earth in that moment. Sometimes, by faith, we KNOW that is about to happen and we get to join the ultimate purpose of God here and now; and sometimes a blind squirrel just finds the nut.. because God loves all his creatures with tender compassion. But thank you Richard for a helpful paradigm that releases us from despair or even guilt when our desperate prayers continue to go 'unanswered' in our penultimate reality.
I’ve appreciated this series on prayer, which is certainly a problem for my life of faith. I was just reading along nodding my head when you wrote, “This is not to say that God does not act, often in surprising and miraculous ways.” I immediately wondered if this was a way to weasel out of the basic point you’ve been making. What are these surprising and miraculous answers to prayer if not an intervention, which you have categorically dismissed. Or do you mean the kinds of things the Spirit inspires in the act of ongoing creation you mention earlier.
I get your point. It seems that the “often and miraculous ways” you quote are the outlier. Speaking from my own experience, I’ve experienced what I interpret as surprising and miraculous rather spontaneously, rather than a result of some prayer. At those times I would add prayers of thanks to the hope and lament.
Or the penultimate and ultimate times align perfectly in a kairos moment, and we experience the heavenly reality on earth in that moment. Sometimes, by faith, we KNOW that is about to happen and we get to join the ultimate purpose of God here and now; and sometimes a blind squirrel just finds the nut.. because God loves all his creatures with tender compassion. But thank you Richard for a helpful paradigm that releases us from despair or even guilt when our desperate prayers continue to go 'unanswered' in our penultimate reality.
I’ve appreciated this series on prayer, which is certainly a problem for my life of faith. I was just reading along nodding my head when you wrote, “This is not to say that God does not act, often in surprising and miraculous ways.” I immediately wondered if this was a way to weasel out of the basic point you’ve been making. What are these surprising and miraculous answers to prayer if not an intervention, which you have categorically dismissed. Or do you mean the kinds of things the Spirit inspires in the act of ongoing creation you mention earlier.
Hello Leonard,
I get your point. It seems that the “often and miraculous ways” you quote are the outlier. Speaking from my own experience, I’ve experienced what I interpret as surprising and miraculous rather spontaneously, rather than a result of some prayer. At those times I would add prayers of thanks to the hope and lament.