Prayer

It is very unusual for me to want to say anything at all about prayer. And yet I put together the prayers in the pew sheet every week, just compiled from various cycles (ecumenical, Anglican and Diocesan). Last week a paragraph or two from the Changing Attitude blog made so much sense to me. Of course I should have, maybe I actually have, read it all before. But Colin Coward's comments make it stand out for me.
for more go to: http://changingattitude-england.blogspot.com/2010/09/gay-bishops-still-dont-exist-in-public.html Colin writes:

"I’ve now read the Times interview with the Archbishop in its entirety and want to begin by focussing on something that wasn’t reported elsewhere but is key to my Christian life and witness. Archbishop Rowan told his interviewer that “... the point of praying is to open yourself up to God so God can do what he wants with you. You come with empty hands, as silent as you can be and say, ‘Over to you.’ So you could say the function was to make you the person God wants you to be – in the full awareness that that might not be quite the person you think you want to be.”

Yes indeed. Prayer is opening yourself up to God and both ++Rowan and I pray in a similar way. The intention is to make you the person God wants you to be, and there’s the rub. Does God want me to be a priest? Does God want me to be gay? Does God want me to be celibate? Does God want me to love my partner and enjoy my life with him to the full? What do I do when these conflict, as they do at the moment? When I centre in prayer and say, ‘Over to you’, God still seems to be saying that each of these aspects of me are part of the person God wants me to be."

Perhaps for me it is still as hazy as watching this whale swimming underwater. But there is something huge and powerful there!