As another year nears its end, what you may want to do is to reflect on the “rim” of your life. What you may need to do, however, is to reflect on the “hub” of your life.
Commenting on the ministry of Jesus, Dutch-born author Henri Nouwen explains. He once wrote that Jesus’ public and visible ministry represents the rim of a wheel. That’s where the movement happens. That’s where contact is made with the road. Action takes place on the rim. Life-change. Impact. The rim represents our desire to make a difference in and contribute meaningfully to the world around us this year. It’s the visible life that we, and others, see.
What happens on the rim, however, is made possible by what happens in the hub. The hub is the private part of our life. It’s the part few others see. Yet it is fundamental to all else. Power flows from the hub of a wheel to the rim. If nothing is moving at the hub, nothing is moving on the rim. The hub represents prayer. Prayer makes ministry possible. Prayer is the practice that empowers a life that matters. No prayer, no impact.
A full life begins not necessarily by focusing on the outside, but on the inside.
But how do we practice prayer? What does life in the hub look like? What kind of prayer empowers a life that really matters? Those are the questions driving Timothy Keller’s latest book Prayer. Keller is the author of other wonderful volumes such as The Reason for God, The Meaning of Marriage and Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. In Prayer, Keller tackles the hub, the essential and influential practice of prayer.
He acknowledges at the outset that the “best material on prayer has been written” (1). He therefore does not presume to offer new or improved teaching on prayer. Instead, in Prayer Keller attempts to summarize some of the church’s best teaching on prayer and to provide practical ways to implement that teaching.
Sadly, as Keller assembles his prayer experts, he limits the panel to Protestant theologians of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries (245). Repeatedly, Keller dismisses Catholic theologians and practices (39, 179). This removes any serious interaction with some of the most profound teaching on prayer. He also does not seriously engage contemporary authors like Richard Foster, Dallas Willard or John Ortberg, each of whom have written influential books on prayer.
Not only is the prayer-panel somewhat under-staffed, but Keller relies primarily on it to discuss the “what” and “why” of prayer. Eleven of the book’s fifteen chapters are devoted to academic and theological explorations of what prayer is and why prayer matters. The remaining four chapters finally attempt to help us discover how to actually live life in Nouwen’s hub. These four chapters are the best in the book.
To be clear, the long road of what and why does offer a few beautiful vistas and refreshing streams. Here are some examples of thoughtful and instructive content from the first eleven chapters:
- Keller frames prayer as “communion and kingdom” (3). Prayer allows us to grow more deeply in relationship with God (communion) and permits us to engage more deeply in the work of God (kingdom). This is a helpful way of summarizing the primary purposes of prayer.
- Keller defines prayer “as a personal, communicative response to the knowledge of God” (45). From this definition he explores the importance of prayer as a response to Scripture (one of the primary sources of knowledge of God) and the ways in which meditation upon Scripture prompts and grounds prayer (52). (And here is where he would have benefitted from an addition or two to his prayer-panel, such as Catholic author Timothy Gallagher whose Meditation and Contemplation: An Ignatian Guide to Praying Scripture explains with great wisdom how to use Scripture in prayer).
- Keller’s summary of twelve “touchstones” of prayer derived from his prayer-panel provides a helpful overview of some of the most critical what’s and why’s of prayer (141).
But it is the book’s final four chapters that make the long journey worth every word. Here, Keller proposes that there are three kinds of prayer (189) (Richard Foster’s Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home uses a similar typology.):
- There is “upward” prayer consisting of praise and thanksgiving to God.
- There is “inward” prayer consisting of self-examination and confession.
- There is “outward” prayer consisting of supplication and intercession for our needs and the needs of others.
Devoting one chapter to each, Keller shows why each type of prayer matters and how each can be practiced in daily life. These are the strongest chapters on the book for those looking for real-life counsel on how to live in the hub.
This instruction all comes together in the final chapter, a strong call for the practice of prayer–in all its forms–on a daily basis. Keller makes a compelling case for the need for daily prayer and demonstrates how to create a pattern in which this daily practice can flourish.
The book deserves to be on your shelf or e-reader. The first eleven chapters will give you deep resources to study about prayer. The final four chapters will give you practical advice to practice prayer. As a whole, Prayer will lead to just that–more prayer.
Timothy Keller
Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God
321 Pages
Dutton, 2014
ISBN 978-0-525-95414-9
