Mark Marten,
Professor of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering,
University of Maryland Baltimore County
[October 15, 2012]
I have to confess that I don’t read a lot of books on prayer. However, last summer a friend told me his spiritual gift was “book recommendation,” and to prove it he suggested two titles. My positive experience with his first recommendation led me, somewhat reluctantly, to read the second—Paul Miller’s A Praying Life. It literally changed my life.
Miller has coined a clever title. It is a book on prayer, but more about a “kind of life,” one lived connected with God. It’s the idea of living in constant communication with God, while accomplishing His kingdom work together. This is a theme that God has been teaching me for the last five years or so through other books (Practicing the Presence of God, Letters by a Modern Mystic). Practicing the presence of God has become the most transformational spiritual discipline in my life.
Welcome Honesty
I liked this book by Miller because he is refreshingly honest. He talks often of his own life and struggles related to prayer. I sensed tremendous authenticity while reading the stories he uses to illustrate his points. Early in the book he gives a wonderful description and explanation for why many, like me, have a rather poor prayer life when he tackles cynicism – a huge problem in American Christianity. He then effectively discusses how to move past this.
I’ve always known intellectually about the importance and necessity of prayer, but if my actions are a reflection of what I really believe, then I suppose I didn’t hold prayer in very high regard. Miller does a wonderful job of imparting a tremendous vision for prayer. His writing gives me the “want to” for prayer.
Here’s one of my favorite quotes:
“When you stop trying to control your life and instead allow your anxieties to bring you to God in prayer, you shift from worry to watching. You watch God weave His patterns in the story of your life. Instead of trying to be out front, designing your life, you realize you are, instead, part of God’s drama. As you wait, you begin to see Him work, and your life begins to sparkle with wonder. You are learning to trust again.”
I loved this book so much that I used it as material for both a faculty Bible study and a student Bible study on campus, and I’ve been going through it with my wife (also a professor) as we learn together to become more connected with God. Now she’s going through it with one of the women that she mentors.
I highly recommend reading this book!
(c) Mark Marten 2012