Reflections:
When I listen to myself pray, and when I listen to others pray, it seems that most of what we say to God revolves around what we want. Sometimes our lists are heart-rending. We desire healing from a deadly disease, comfort from the loss of someone we love, a job and a paycheck. More often, our prayers are day-to-day: a passing grade on the exam, strength to get through another day at work, safe travel. Sometimes they are trivial: a victory on the football field, our favorite team in the playoffs. Most of our prayers are filled with the things that we want God to do for us.
But sometimes I wonder, what does God want?
Maybe he wants a great cathedral constructed in His honor, a building that rises out of the concrete and towers over the city with majestic spires and stained glass windows. Perhaps he wants a more modern structure that resembles the headquarters of a major corporation or a shopping mall. Something designed to make a statement to the world that God is important.
Maybe He wants music. Perhaps God wants classical music like Ode to Joy, or Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring. Or, maybe he prefers contemporary music: amplifiers, electric guitars, drums, drums and more drums. Maybe God prefers Blue Grass or Country. Who knows? I sometimes wonder what we will sing in Heaven.
Maybe God likes His own sounds: thunder in the heavens, the whisper of wind in the wings of a bird, echoes in a canyon, a babbling brook or the powerful rush of Niagara Falls.
The Bible gives some pretty good clues about what God wants.
In Isaiah’s day, God made it clear that He was fed up with efforts to impress Him with religious behavior. He said, “When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer. … Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the