In Tim Keller’s book Prayer, he applies C.S. Lewis’s thoughts on friendship to our relationship with Jesus:
Prayer is therefore not a strictly private thing. As much as we can, we should pray with others both formally in gathered worship and informally. Why? If the substance of prayer is to continue a conversation with God, and if the purpose of it is to know God better, then this can happen best in community.
C. S. Lewis argues that it takes a community of people to get to know an individual person. Reflecting on his own friendships, he observed that some aspects of one of his friend’s personality were brought out only through interaction with a second friend. That meant if he lost the second friend, he lost the part of his first friend that was otherwise invisible. “By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets.” If it takes a community to know an ordinary human being, how much more necessary would it be to get to know Jesus alongside others? By praying with friends, you will be able to hear and see facets of Jesus that you have not yet perceived. (pp. 118-119)
If knowing Jesus makes you a better thinker, and praying in community helps you know Jesus better, then as apologists, I guess you know what you need to do now!
This reminds me of why God created Eve for Adam: not because God wasn't enough for Adam, but because Adam wasn't enough for Adam to enjoy life and God with. Adam could be enjoy and know God in community. It wasn't a limitation of God, but a limitation of Adam. And it wasn't a bug, it was a feature.
Posted by: Aaron Shaf | June 13, 2015 at 01:37 PM
Sorry, I meant, "Adam could be[st] enjoy and know God in community"
Posted by: Aaron Shaf | June 13, 2015 at 01:37 PM