"A real man or woman of prayer, then, should be a live wire, a link between God's grace and the world that needs it." (Evelyn Underhill, "Life as Prayer, p. 55)
So, I admit it, prayer is not my strong suit, but I suspect that I'm not alone in this struggle. For many years I have been locked into what I understood prayer to be, mainly the head bowed, eyes closed and mouth speaking directly to Jesus for a certain amount of time, but when I opened my Bible and read, "Pray Unceasingly", suddenly I couldn't make sense of how I had been defining prayer. Evelyn Underhill has helped me along in this journey and for that I am grateful.
Beginning in 1922, Evelyn Underhill wrote papers on the topic of Prayer and more than likely gained this theme from her spiritual director Friedrich Von Hugel. Von Hugel wrote an essay called "The Life of Prayer" and in it he helps shape the attitudes and different forms of prayer. Underhill writes similarly on this topic including different forms of prayer, but takes a slightly different approach. One such paper written by Underhill was "Life as Prayer" and in it she sets out to define prayer and to join it together with a demeanor bent towards God. Communion is the result of the praying person and when one intentionally orients their life toward God, then it can be rightfully claimed as prayer.
"What, then is Prayer? In a most general sense, it is the intercourse of our little human souls with God." (Underhill, Life as Prayer, p. 54)
Underhill begins with a premise that prayer ought to be anything that results from communicating with God. This means that an act of charity towards someone or intentionally spending time reading God's Word can all be included in her definition of prayer. In other words, prayer includes both being and doing with and for God, it is a life pointing toward God and intersecting with a world that needs Him. This makes it easy to transition from the most basic of vocal prayer to intercessory prayer.
"Prayer, then, is a purely spiritual activity; and its real doer is God Himself, the one inciter and mover of our soul." (Underhill, Life as Prayer, p. 54)
But, this brings up what I think was a real struggle for Underhill, that is what is the point in such prayer. Any cursory reading of her writings would tell us that she struggled with the kind of prayer that just asks and asks from God. It seemed to her that to ask from God had more focus in one's own life, a type of pride, a self orientation that excluded God's agenda, no wonder she had great difficulty with prayer early on. It was her spiritual director, Von Hugel, that helped her to see that the prayer life was more than requests, but that of a life continually oriented to the lover and maker of our souls.
"In so far as you have given your lives to God, you have offered yourselves, without conditions, as transmitters of His saving and enabling love...One human spirit can, by its prayer and love, touch and change another human spirit; it can take a soul and lift it into the atmosphere of God." (Underhill, Life as Prayer, p. 55)
I think this is what Underhill believed that Von Hugel did for her, earlier when she was working through her own understanding of who God was, Von Hugel all the while in his action and communion with God, interceded for Underhill and ultimately yielded the fruit of the "real doer", Christ drawing Underhill to Himself. The prayer life for Underhill was a very active service before God and in what I think to be a real healthy definition of prayer, we can begin to find new and freeing application to our own prayer lives.
There are a number of themes that stand out within this redefining of prayer: Themes such as Offering others to God, Distributing redemption, Giving Grace, Communing with God, etc. For Underhill, prayer is certainly about the power of God manifested in a life well spent with Christ. "Life as Prayer" becomes all the more real when we realize that prayer is how one orients their life toward God. Prayer is active, it is communion with God and it is concerned with the world that it interacts with daily. I find new meaning in the Lord's prayer in light of Underhill's thoughts, "...Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it IS in heaven..." When I think about it, my requests to God are usually pretty petty, how's your prayer life?
Reflect on these items:
1) Read Isaiah 58, focusing specifically on vv. 6-7, how can you become a distributor of God's redeeming power? Is this your prayer?
2) Spend a moment trying to define prayer as you have thought it to be? What have you been taught? What does the Bible say on prayer? Does Underhill's insight help your biblical understanding of prayer?
3) If you struggle with consistently praying, why is it difficult? Do you speak regularly to God throughout your day? When was the last time you offered someone your cared for, loved into the "atmosphere of God"? Take a moment and write a letter to that person, help them to understand your heart toward them, fill your letter with gracious and redeeming words.