Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Mark Yaconelli is the co-founder and co-director of Triptykos School of Compassion. The author of Downtime, Contemplative Youth Ministry, and Growing Souls, Mark lives in Oregon with his wife and three children.

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Every heart feels wonder. Every heart knows fear. Every heart aches with longing. Awed, we whisper, “Thank you.” Frightened, we cry, “Mercy.” Yearning we plead, “Show me the way.”

Because the truth is, no matter who you are, every heart needs prayer.

This is a prayer book. A book to seduce, cajole, entice, and encourage your heart into prayer. More than a book to be read, this is a book to be explored. It is a book of stories, divine poetry, holy verses, mystical inspirations, prayerful imaginings, meditative practices, and spiritual exercises that seek to uncover the hidden communication between you and God.

As you read and explore more about love, longing, fear, suffering, compassion, rest, reflection, passion, wonder, and gratitude you'll be invited to discover prayer within the various moods, attitudes, and experiences that we human beings often find ourselves in. It's a book to be used, flipped through, tested, experimented with, and then set aside. It is a book that asks you time after time to stop and listen, turn and welcome the silent love of God.

The hope of this book isn't to teach you anything. The point of this book is to encourage you to give yourself to God--your anger, your fear, your gratitude, your curiosity--your real self to the real God, because then (and only then) will your heart find peace (even in the midst of wonder, fear, and longing).

Because every heart needs prayer.

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Wonder, Fear, and Longing

Zondervan

Contents

Introduction: Pray All That's in You.....................61. Love..................................................162. Longing...............................................273. Fear..................................................344. Suffering.............................................545. Compassion............................................736. Rest..................................................907. Reflection............................................1048. Passion...............................................1239. Wonder................................................14310. Gratitude............................................162

Chapter One

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

1 JOHN 4:16

Love God.

Love others as you love yourself.

Jesus once said the Christian faith was expressed in these two statements.

We spend much of our lives dealing with the second principle. We constantly struggle with our relationships with people-family, friends, teachers, coworkers, obnoxious strangers. We know what Jesus is talking about when he asks us to love others; he means we're to show kindness, patience, generosity, and truthfulness in our interactions with other people. He means we're to treat others as we want to be treated.

We also know what Jesus is referring to when he says, "As you love yourself." He wants us to try to see ourselves the way God sees us, the way a loving parent would see us. He means seeing ourselves as God's beloved. He means we should offer ourselves the same kindness, compassion, patience, encouragement, and truthfulness we seek to offer others.

Jesus encourages every human being to engage in this work (and it often feels like work) each day. To live with and value other people, to live with and value ourselves.

But Jesus says the first and most essential struggle in which a Christian engages is not this effort to love ourselves and others. The first struggle is to receive and return God's love, the love that rises from the very center of every living thing.

Have you ever felt truly loved? When you're really loved, whether it's by a parent or a friend or someone you're romantically attracted to, you feel a sense of well being all the way down to your bones. When you're loved well, there's a sense of freedom, a sense of safety, a feeling that you can really be yourself without fear of rejection or humiliation. Sometimes it's energizing to be loved-you feel inspired, encouraged, creative, less anxious, less irritable. You find yourself feeling more generous, compassionate, more likely to bring food to a homeless person. Every human being wants and needs love-anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.

God knows that every human heart needs love. At the same time God grieves that most of us are not loved very well. Human beings are broken and fearful, and sadly we often show the most cruelty, anger, and indifference to our family members, our good friends, and others who are closest to us. And yet beneath the broken love human beings exchange with one another, God comes to us. Beneath the hurt and longing, Christians experience and trust a deeper love that has been made visible and accessible in Jesus. Christians have known, and felt, and been changed by this God-love that comes to every person unearned, as a gift.

Christians trust that this love is more powerful, more healing, and more real than a hundred romances. Yet for many people this love remains a mystery, a dream, a fairy tale, a belief, but rarely a reality. How can you know God's love? How do you love a God you can't see, a God who is often silent, a God you can't touch?

Prayer is the experience of loving God. Prayer is the effort to receive, return, and enjoy God's love directly. Prayer isn't a good deed. Prayer isn't a religious duty. It isn't something that God needs us to perform. Nor is prayer a kind of Christian magic that allows us to control life's outcomes. Prayer is like spending time with a loving friend. Prayer is opening our hearts to the One who is the source of all love. Prayer is like lying in a field of falling snow. Silent. In wonder. Waiting until you hear the One who is closer than your own breathing whisper what your heart has always known to be true: That you are loved. That your value is incalculable. That you are cherished. That you are a sign of God's love in the world.

There are many ways to love God. We love God by loving what God loves. We love God by seeking to become the person God created us to be. We love God by sharing God's love with others, particularly the poor, the needy, those who are hurting or lonely. We love God by seeking to become like Jesus, by seeking to become a source of love and healing for others. We love God by becoming love. Like Jesus, we struggle to show kindness and hospitality to those who feel most unwanted.

One of the primary ways in which we share love with God is through prayer. We stop and turn our heart's eyes and ears to God. We stop and give our attention to God. We stop and spend time with the One who loves us into being.

* * *

Scripture

Verses to draw your spirit to God ...

Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will never forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. ISAIAH 49:15-16

You are my child, my beloved, with you I am well pleased. MARK 1:11

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. ROMANS 8:38-39

Prayer

Words to help you speak to God ...

O beloved of all hearts, how I yearn to bask in your love! To walk by faith rather than fear- to be a companioning friend to You.

For far too long I have felt unworthy, like an orphan unwanted and alone, forgetting that You call me by name; You shelter me in the palm of your hands! Like all who open the heart's door, You are mine, I am Yours!

O Beloved Friend, quiet my restless soul; may I ever remember that my true home is love. NAN C. MERRILL

Meditation

Reflections to open your heart to God ...

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure? I think it is the hope of loving, or being loved. I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey to find its source, and how the moon wept without her lover's warm gaze.

We weep when light does not reach our hearts. We wither like fields if someone close does not rain their kindness upon us. MEISTER...