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| Source: medium.com |
Something very unexpected has profoundly affected my prayer life in recent years.
To be quite frank, it hasn't been the Bible studies I've done about prayer, although I've done several that were meaningful for me.
It hasn't been the pre-printed prayer calendars and prayer guides my church gives out in our foyer.
It hasn't been my prayer journal, although it definitely keeps my prayers more organized, and helps me to see and record how God is faithful to answer my prayers.
Surprisingly, it has been fiction books.
Yep, you read that right.
Novels. Secular novels.
I think the way that novels have most impacted my prayer life is by opening my heart to walk alongside another person (even if that person is a fictional character) through their story of heartbreak, loss, persecution, and injustice. And by walking with them, to listen to their story, and to ultimately care--at the heart level--about things that don't personally affect my life here in modern America suburbia.
Fiction has opened my eyes to other cultures, and grown in me an interest to learn more about their history (which oftentimes, is a very difficult and violent one).
It has provided a safe window into another part of the world--especially those places that are war-torn and unsafe to travel to--to help me get to know it, and grow to appreciate it, and even have a heart for it.
I'll never forget reading Khaled Hosseini's books, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns about five or six years ago. I remember just weeping--like seriously ugly crying--over the nation of Afghanistan, where these books are set. I wept over the religious oppression and cruelty of the Taliban, over the injustices suffered by women at the hands of men, and over the prejudice and abuse suffered by the Hazara people.
I remember being quiet and sad all day long after I finished Hosseini's second novel, as I was going through the daily motions of taking care of my toddler, preschooler, and kindergarden-aged children.
Looking back though, it was a good quiet and sad day. It was a sadness that was knitting compassion into my heart, growing me as a child of God to care about some of the other people He deeply loves.
Here's how I see it: when things get scary and uncomfortable on the news, it is too easy to turn the channel or throw down the newspaper. Honestly, what I do most often is to avoid news sources all together.
But with fictional stories, these characters--these people--soon become your friends. Instead of running away from their story, you find yourself leaning in when the subject gets uncomfortable and you listen with more intent to hear...and to feel...and to care.
Unlike any other worldly means, fiction has broken wide-open my capacity for love and compassion.
In truth, fiction stories have messed me up in all the right ways.
They have helped me truly feel.
They have made me care.
They have helped me to love people on a deeper level.
In fact, they have motivated me to get to know real people from these other cultures.
Recently, I've been adding autobiography into my reading mix. I recently read I Am Malala, written by Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani girl who stood up to the Taliban for girls' rights to go to school. I was pleased to find out that she is currently 21-years-old and studying at Oxford, after being the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
So now, instead of your run-of-the-mill family and friends prayer requests, I am finding my prayer list is being overrun with topics such as the red-light district of Amsterdam, women in Iran, and US/Taliban peace talks in Afghanistan.
All because I've read my way there.
I'll end today's post with a short book list if you want to read your way into a new prayer life, too, dear friend. I won't promise this list is a good one if you are a sensitive reader, but each of these titles have messed me up in a good way...to PRAY!
BOOK LIST
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (technically memoir)
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (also exists in a young readers format)
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Habibi by Naomi Shabib Nye
A Window on the World (an excellent non-fiction prayer resource for adults and kids alike, great for country look up AFTER you've read your fiction book)
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