Brokenness and Viduy
Friday, June 6th, 2008by John J. Parsons
www.hebrew4christians.com
I’ve been somewhat introspective lately, doubtlessly because sickness and suffering tend to direct our focus inward. That seems inevitable. If you stub your toe, your attention immediately is redirected; if you find yourself in a place of physical or emotional agony, you likewise are more likely to search for the source of the pain.
Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) wrote, “I am beginning to see that much of praying is grieving,” and that rings true to my heart. When we pray to the LORD, it’s obvious that we are not imparting to Him any information, since He is omniscient, of course. As King David wrote:
Ki ein milah bilshoni, hen, Adonai, yadati khulah: “For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether” (Psalm 139:4).
Yeshua taught us that our Heavenly Father knows what we need before we even ask Him (Matt. 6:8), and therefore we do not need to use the “many words of the goyim” (Matt. 6:7) to experience communion with God…
Kierkegaard once wrote that the purpose of prayer is not to influence God but rather to change the nature of the one who prays. When we get past our words — our chatter, the insecurities that rise from our hearts, the cares of the day, even our hopes and dreams — then we are sufficiently quieted to encounter God. It is then that we can truly listen and begin to apprehend something of God’s glory…. It is then that we can grieve over our lives and the lives of others in naked dependence upon God.
There is a saying that we are “only as sick as the secrets we keep.” That applies first of all to ourselves. We must get past self-deception and wishful thinking in order to soberly see who we really are…. Earnest, fervent prayer “availeth much,” for it is the means by which we can get away from pretense and appeal to the LORD for help.
But this goes beyond a “solipsistic” connection with God. Jewish prayer is always in the plural: “Our Father, who art in heaven…” We are not even persons when we divorce ourselves from others, but run the risk of delusion and even madness. A quote by Scott Peck I read recently touches on this idea to make our brokenness known to others:
Community requires the confession of brokenness. But how remarkable it is that in our culture brokenness must be “confessed.” We think of confession as an act that should be carried out in secret, in the darkness of the confessional, with the guarantee of professional priestly or psychiatric confidentiality. Yet the reality is that every human being is broken and vulnerable. How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others. But even more important is the LOVE that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.
Source: “The Different Drum” by M. Scott Peck
May the LORD give us all the courage and grace to be vulnerable with someone we can trust in our lives. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).
