I’m not sure what to write about today, so I’ll just write. It may be brief today since I’m feeling a bit like taking a nap, however I’m curious to discover what story is trying to break through fertile ground that feels like the seedling of a prayer.
I’m sitting in the Holocaust Museum’s lobby in Los Angeles waiting for my husband who is screening a feature film about the Holocaust, and then leading a discussion. This is part of his job distributing a film for the production company that produced the film, which has been a blessing in that he’s met many brave Holocaust survivors and their passionate advocates. I’m sitting on a black leather couch writing since I’ve already seen the film several times. Before me is a wall of television screens of interviews with a hundred or so Holocaust survivors. All I see when I look up is a mosaic of faces with mouths moving since the volume is muted. I don’t even need to hear their stories, the images of these elderly survivors with moving mouths is enough to know this is a wailing wall. The wall is like a voiceless poem, or a silent prayer.
The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, actually called the Western Wall, is a limestone remnant of the Second temple Rome destroyed in 70 C.E.. Although its most holy to the Jews, it’s also a place where visitors from worldwide follow in the tradition of stuffing written prayers in a crack in the wall. I’ve read that every few days a caretaker collects hundreds of prayers, bringing them for burial in an ancient cemetery on the Mount of Olives.
It seems its human nature from generation to generation to share our prayers in sacred places and spaces. Today in America we write prayers in private journals, worship in fellowship or create hymns and songs to commune with our God. Our Jewish forefathers recited prayers throughout the day and met in temples as many observant Jews still do today, or like King David, wrote Psalms filled with sacred poetry, song and laments we’re blessed to read today.
Sometimes this blog for me is a wailing wall of sorts, a place I reach deep into the silent cries of my soul for words that make meaning of my suffering, of faith and faithlessness, or of the world’s pain. Or it’s a place I worship the shining light of God’s truth, where I search for truth in the Word of God. Our blogs become places we gather to tell our stories, and these stories in turn become like prayers. Stories, whether in the form of poems, blogs, movies, or song make sense of the human condition, of both our suffering and our joy. And it’s in these stories we reach one another across centuries, borders, or through the Internet like we’re holding hands, as if in communal prayer, trying to make sense of it all.
It’s said the Bible is the greatest story ever told, a story of creation, of rebellion, redemption and resurrection and new life, it’s like the great grandparent of wailing walls, and of prayer.
Amen.
What is your wailing wall? How do you best pray? What is your story and how can you see it as a prayer?
We love your comments!
Wow! This is awesome. Love the thought of our blogs and journals as prayer, the authors holding hands in unity for Jesus. Powerful imagery. Thank you!!
thank you Leslie for your inspirational comment! So much appreciate! I’m not always great at regular sitting down and praying until I realized so much of what I do each day in writing, walking in nature, etc. I am seeking God, and this is a sort of prayer..warm thanks!
Such a reflective, descriptive piece written while in a public place! Nice! I have been stumbling with prayer lately but maybe it is the stories too that I write, journal or imagine where my prayers are? It stokes the fire in my heart for stories thinking of prayer this way. Thank you!
I also have been having a hard time with prayer lately, but I realized my writing brings me closer to God..at least they feel a way to prayer! Thanks so much Lynn!
I so love the idea of seeing our blogs as prayers. Prayers of encouragement, of hope-searching, of thanksgiving, of expressing the cries deep within our hearts – praying that they would help someone else. Thank you for this beautiful post.
thank you Carlie for your encouraging comment. So happy it spoke to you!
I makes me want to blog! 🙂 May God bless every word you send out! I am agreeing with you in prayer!
Thank you so much Joan, you might think of starting a blog, it’s a beautiful way to pray and connect with other likeminded!
This is so wonderful and true! Writing is cathartic I find. As we find, we find our prayers tumbling in, new truths from the Bible suddenly become alive, burdens become deeper, like a wailing wall.. loved the way you brought it out!
I won’t repeat the whole quote here, but your paragraph starting with, “Sometimes this blog for me is a wailing wall of sorts…” Writing as a prayer, a connection with God and with others, finding and communicating truth that touches the human condition and touches God…
I so connected with this and although I am not in a place or time where I feel the freedom to write (for lots of reasons: moving countries, moving several times, building a house, limited internet,and more), I am deeply missing the writing. Like you, I don’t find it easy to sit and pray, but find that prayer arises as God speaks to me through the writing and searching through scriptures, and the inspiration that comes from others. The communication of words and thought and spirit become living prayer.
Once again, thank you. God bless you.
Diane
I would love to see all of those interviews and the film… I can’t even imagine how moving it all is to be witness to these incredible souls who survived such a tragic era of evil.
I would love to go to that wall and slip a prayer into it. I love how you described your blog, and really you’re so right about this. I think everyone has their own wailing wall in some form or another. I’m so glad you took the time to write this, Kathy! Even sitting there whipping these words out without a plan- you managed to create an impassioned message full of wisdom and truth.
I love coming to your “wailing wall” here. Through your stories, your profound wisdom, and your inspiring revelations- I am ALWAYS moved and deeply impacted.
I have a sense of providence as I read your post, since I have just returned from Jerusalem where I visited their Holocaust Museum. It was a lamenting, prayerful, worshipful (yes), and moving experience.
You have the right question when you ask: “What is your story and how can you see it as a prayer?” I reflect on story and prayer in this: https://rhfoerger.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/no-storyless-prayers/
Hi Rusty, yes I believe providence! What a powerful experience going to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem..I can only image the impact of your visit with Israel as the backdrop as opposed to Los Angeles..I’m eager to read your blog! I also wrote a couple of weeks back about my drive with a Holocaust survivor..I’m blessed by your comment!
PS gorgeous blog ‘No storyless prayers’..a fantastic addition to Our Stories are Prayers..