Praying for Parking Spaces ??

Christina Holder at the new Breakpoint blog - the Point (great blog by the way - I encourage you to read it if you aren't doing so) has a post called "Praying for Parking Spaces," which is based on a sermon of Lon Solomon this past weekend at McLean Bible Church in McLean, Va.  Apparently, Lon Solomon was trying to refute the principles in Gary Friesen's book Decision Making and the Will of God.  This is well travelled ground here at Jollyblogger.

Way back in May of 2004 Rusty Lopez wrote a post on the subject that got me going (btw - come back to the blogosphere Rusty, we'll gladly take you back).

Then I wrote about it here.

Rusty followed up here.

Parablemania addressed it here.

Rebecca Writes wrote about finding the will of God here and here.

Since that little exchange my friend Keith Plummer entered the blogosphere and has written about the subject here.

I wouldn't be back on the subject except for the fact that these words from Lon Solomon really torqued me off.  Don't worry though, I won't hold Christina responsible, she's just the messenger, although she does seem to endorse what he said.

Per Lon Solomon:

Friesen contends that God is like a lifeguard who watches over His children and expects them to stay within the boundary ropes of his moral law--those principles and commands addressed in the Bible. He expects His children to obey these limits, but inside the boundary ropes, they are free to swim as they please. In other words, Friesen is saying God does not care about our choices for situations that are not specifically addressed in the Bible, such as whom to marry, what house to rent or where to attend college, Solomon says.

In response:

But Solomon says that Freisen’s theory "cheapens God’s role" in our lives. It lessens our dependence on God and goes directly against Jesus' own words in John 15:5, when he said, "For without me ye can do nothing."

Apparently Pastor Solomon then goes on to talk about how God wants to be involved in every detail of our lives, to the point that he prays for parking spaces in Washington, DC.

I can sympathize with the agony of trying to find a parking space in DC, that's why I usually take the Metro when I go.  But this badly misrepresents Friesen.  Solomon makes Friesen out to be a near deist who doesn't care about the details of our lives, and this is not the case.  It's been years since I read Friesen's book but if memory serves me correctly there is nothing in there to suggest that God doesn't care about the details of our lives, it is just that God equips us on a daily basis to make proper decisions. 

Christina gives a list of Scriptural passages that Solomon cited to prove his point that God wants us to pray for parking spaces, but the list completely misses any hint of context or historical redemptive significance in the examples cited.  One example is that Jesus stayed up all night praying before choosing the twelve - that's a matter of huge redemptive historical significance - Jesus was praying on the eve of choosing those who would reconstitute the twelve tribes of Israel - you just can't jump from that praying for a parking space.

Another thing is you don't find examples of this in Scripture.  While we can certainly admire the desire to see God in the details of life, you just don't see this kind of prayer exemplified in Scripture. 

Also, I don't know if Friesen hits this very hard, but the Scripture is very clear about God's revealed will in many places - that we be conformed to the image of Christ, that we carry the cross, that we please Him.  If we are going to pray for things like parking spaces these things must be filtered through the revealed will of God.  For instance, if you really think you need to pray for a parking space, then you ought to filter it through the lense of God's revealed will.  You ought to ask how this contributes to my task of carrying the crosss, of self-denial, how this will conform me to the image of Christ, and so on and so on.

The thing that troubles me the most about this is that it endorses a kind of prayer for personal advantage and convenience.  I may get the plum parking space but if I get it, that means someone else will get a worse parking space.  Given Jesus words of condemnation of Pharisees who want the best seats at the table in Matthew 23, wouldn't that translate to the parking space situation in such a way as to cause us to want to pray that others get the better spots?

I'm saying all of this to argue against what I would call "prayer for personal advantage."  To be honest I don't pray for parking spaces.  I usually go into a parking lot and take whichever space I see first  - sometimes I get the good spots and sometimes I get the spots in the back and later find out that there were better spots I could have gotten.  Either way, it's no big deal.

In the Lord's prayer, Jesus tells us that, when we pray for ourselves, we are to pray for our most basic needs, like food.  He doesn't give us an example of praying for other things which are to our advantage, and certainly not when something to our advantage would put someone else at a disadvantage.

And along those lines I think the biggest concern here is that this admonition to pray about details like parking spaces may take our minds off of bigger things like the kingdom of God.  If the Lord's prayer teaches us anything it teaches us to make the coming of the kingdom of God the primary thing in our prayers.  My fear is that if we get all excited about praying for parking spaces and other assorted whatnot, we're going to lose sight of praying for the coming of the kingdom of God.

And in conclusion, I have nothing against Lon Solomon - I know he's a wonderful, godly man who pastors a great church - I know some folks who go there and the ministry has been great.  Lon Solomon's a greater Christian and pastor than I will ever be, but this one really torqued me off.

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