Why do we feel like we are always performing? Where does this impulse come from?
As John Starke shows in The Secret Place of Thunder, our modern world has internalized the idea that the markers of having an admirable and successful life are primarily visible. It leads us to believe that a sense of self-worth and identity are metrics to be displayed. The performance of the self has become more important than the reality. We live as if the most important things about us are to be performed before others; that our deepest happiness will come from being who others think we ought to be.
But when Jesus says, 'Do not practice your righteousness before others,' he is leading us to believe that the most important things about us are hidden. How does the Bible lead us to live primarily before God? How does Jesus lead us to wholeness?
Jesus teaches us to live, not for the eyes of others or even for ourselves, but in the secret place where our Father in heaven sees and rewards.
The world clamors for efficiency and productivity. But the life of prayer is neither efficient nor productive. Instead, as we learn in the Psalms, prayer calls us to wait, to watch, to listen, to taste, and to see. These things are not productive by any modern measure-but they are transformative.
As a pastor in Manhattan, John Starke knows the bustle and busyness of our society. But he also knows that prayer is not just for spiritual giants. Prayer, he writes, is for each of us-not because we are full of spiritual wisdom and maturity, but because we are empty. Here is an invitation to discover, via the church's ancient rhythms and with Starke's clear, practical guidance, the possibility of prayer. Here is a book about prayer that is really a book about the whole Christian life.
