Living Wittily

A Diary of Private Prayer and a Wee Green Hymn Book.

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P1010257John Baillie's prayer for today form his Diary of Private Prayer. You can tell he was a philosophical theologian. Photo from Garlogie woods.
 
"Help me in my unbelief, O God; give me greater patience in my hope; and make me more faithful in my love. In loving let me believe and in believing let me love; and in loving and believing let me hope for a more perfect love and a more unwavering faith; through Jesus Christ my Lord." Amen
 
Baillie had two desks in his study. His work desk, and a small prayer desk with a stool for kneeling. His combination of philosophical theology and personal devotion was real in his life, and at times obvious in his writing. 
 
P1010272He was old school Scottish Presbyterian, and none the worse for that. But his slim book of prayers for a month, morning and evening, has been a guide and comfort to tens of =of Christians for almost a century. It was recently updated and revised by Susanna Wright, and that was a wise decision. Language changes, and while I wouldn't want the deep sense of what Baillie wrote to be lost, word usage changes, as do the social signals sent by the language we use.
 
The prayer I have quoted (and which I earlier prayed in my own morning prayers) retains the combination of intellectual sharpness and affective devotion that is Baillie's theological style and spiritual awareness. No book retains its freshness if used every day forevermore. Using Baillie for a few months takes you through the book that number of times.
 
So for a month or two I change it round with other prayer books or books, hymn books or volumes designed for daily reading – two examples, A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the 1960s green covered Baptist Hymn Book.
 
Many of the hymns I know by heart I learned with that hymn book; and many of the hymns I miss most in the contemporary ever changing kaleidoscope of 'praise songs' can be found there. The Bonhoeffer anthology is a serious and careful compilation, not in any sense 'devotional' if by that is meant reassuring comfort zones for the mind. 
 
I don't like the phrase 'quiet time' which seems altogether too regimented as if one suit fits all by a process of changing our natural shape to fit a pattern not designed for our particular body. I don't much like the idea of 'devotions' either; because when I am studying, or photographing, or working tapestry, or cooking lasagne, or cutting the grass, or in conversation with friend or stranger, God is as real in those activities as when self*consciously praying and reading at my desk.
 
But. If everything is prayer then is anything prayer 'as such'. So I try each day, morning and evening, to pray as such. And because it is done as regularly as I can manage, I'm happy to have good company, like John Baillie, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, my wee green hymn book, and various others from the communion of saints, the great cloud of witnesses in the stands cheering their encouragement to all of seeking "to run with perseverance the race that is set before us."   

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