I want to ask a favor of any of you who have read Tim Keller’s book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. I want to know about your experience of reading the book. I’m not asking what you thought of the content, though that is related, and I’m happy to hear.
But I’m mostly interested in knowing how your heart reacted to reading the book. That is, were you encouraged or discouraged or something else? Did the book make you feel like you could do more or did it frustrate your efforts? How did you respond to the book emotionally? Did it make you angry? Did it make you happy? Did you feel like it was written for you? Or did you find the book mystifying, like the author aimed and missed where you were at?
I’m not asking for a publishable review. Just a few thoughts on the experience of reading it. You can put these in the comments section below, for all the world to see (and I rather doubt that Tim Keller reads this blog, so you are certainly safe on that front) or you can email me privately. Either way, I’m interested.
Thanks!
Staci Thomas
It has left me somewhat discouraged as I have tried extremely hard to put it all into practice. As I read it (right when it was released), I was convinced that it was the only way to pray. But since then (so….well longer than a year), I try to implement all of it into my morning Bible time. And it’s frustrating because I want to do everything that’s in it and I can’t seem to get the rhythm right. I feel like I’m failing because I can’t get it all done or because I choose the “wrong” set of verses to focus on or because I choose the wrong method from the appendix that morning. Truly, I’ve been trying to master it for over a year. I would love to hear if anyone feels similarly.
Randy Greenwald
Thanks, Staci. I’ll have more to say about this, but this is helpful. Thanks for sharing.
P. Holt
I asked for and received Keller’s book on prayer for Christmas 2014. I got about halfway in before I got bored, honestly, finding the writing rather flat and the approach more scholarly than pastoral (though I did learn some interesting nuggets from reading the footnotes).
While not without some merit to me as evidenced by several underlined sentences in my copy, Keller’s book came nowhere near affecting me the way Paul Miller’s book, A Praying Life, did when I read it in 2013. Miller’s work did much more to demonstrate for me actual faith-filled prayers and elicit in me a desire to pray and to (gasp!) pray boldly. Similarly, of late, certain of Spurgeon’s sermons on prayer, compiled as chapters in The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life, have lifted my heart in worship and put words of faith and hope in my mouth.
I haven’t given up completely on finishing Keller’s book. There’s a lot of great stuff there, no doubt, and I have great respect for the author. It just may take me a while to circle back and try again.
Randy Greenwald
Thanks, “P.” This is really helpful. Like I mentioned above, I’ll have more to say, but this is helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to express these things. Stay tuned…