Sessions Include:

Lesson #1: Transformed

Lesson #2: Training

Lesson #3: Celebration

Lesson #4: Unhurry

Lesson #5: Prayer

Lesson #6: Servanthood

Lesson #7: Confession

Lesson #8: The Guided Life

Lesson #9: A Life of Freedom

Lesson #10: An Undivided Life

Lesson #11: A Well-Ordered Heart

Lesson #12: A Life of Endurance

Prayer unites the soul to God. -- JULIAN OF NORWICH

There is only one play I can think of in football with an overtly religious name. I saw it recently at a Chicago Bears game. The Bears were a touchdown behind, the clock was ticking off the final few seconds, and the goal line was many yards away. So the Bears ran all their receivers to one corner of the end zone, and their quarterback heaved a desperate toss against impossible odds. The ball bounced off a few people and fell into the hands of James Allen, a diving running back, and the Bears won the game. This particular kind of play picked up a name—originating with Doug Flutie’s last-minute touchdown against Miami in 1984—that is used by Protestants, Catholics, and atheists alike: the hail Mary pass. The rationale is that a pass thrown under such desperate circumstances could only be completed with the help of divine intervention. People sometimes say a quarterback in that situation “threw up a prayer.”

The phrase comes, of course, from the Catholic prayer based on the angel’s greetings to Mary recorded in the first chapter of Luke’s gospel: “Hail Mary, full of grace….”

Why is only that one play named after prayer? There are no “hail Mary kick-off returns” to start games or, to use a more common evangelical prayer, no “Lord, I just want to ask you…” draw plays in the first quarter.

I believe Mary is brought in for the last play of the game because prayer is something we generally associate with desperation. The idea behind this terminology is that for the majority of the game I can rely on my own resources. I will depend on my game plan and my personnel. However, at a moment of crisis and desperation when I’ve run out of time and opportunity, when human cleverness and mortal strength have failed me, and when all other options are gone, that’s the time to throw up a prayer. “Hail Mary…”

Desperate people pray. They pray without thinking about it; they pray even if they are not sure who they’re praying to or if anyone out there is listening at all. People in foxholes pray. So do people who go through divorce, have children that run away, or hear from a doctor that the lab results say the growth is malignant. When we reach the limit of our resources, we pray instinctively, reflexively—like the way a man lacking oxygen gasps for breath and the way a man who is falling reaches out for something to grab.

It is not bad to pray in a time of crisis. One of God’s most amazing attributes is that he is humble enough to accept people when they turn to him in sheer desperation, even when they have been ignoring him for years.

Desperation prayers have been the beginning of spiritual life for many people. But by themselves such prayers are not sufficient to sustain spiritual life. Many of us fall into a pattern where the only times we pray are the times when we are prompted by crisis or pain; the rest of the time we rely on our own strength and cleverness.

This pattern points to what we really believe regarding prayer. In most ordinary moments we are not convinced that prayer really changes things. Many people believe that their prayers won’t change God’s actions, so they ask themselves what the point is of praying. As Dallas Willard puts it, “The idea that everything would happen exactly as it does regardless of whether we pray or not is a specter that haunts the minds of many who sincerely profess belief in God. It makes prayer psychologically impossible, replacing it with dead ritual at best.”

Ortberg, John. 2009. The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Check out the new Bible Study, The Life You've Always Wanted. It is available on Amazon, as well as part of the Good Questions Have Groups Talking subscription service. (Like Netflix for Bible lessons.)