{"id":273,"date":"2010-06-16T13:22:55","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T13:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html"},"modified":"2010-06-16T13:22:55","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T13:22:55","slug":"perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html","title":{"rendered":"Perfectly Human**: The Wideness of Prayer by Paul Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"Thumbnail<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Paul Miller<\/a> is the author of A Praying Life<\/a> (click here<\/a> for my thoughts on this wonderful book) and Love Walked Among Us<\/a>. He is also the Executive Director of seejesus.net<\/a>. The following essay includes a few paragraphs from A Praying Life, with new material at the end:<\/p>\n

For some reason our daughter Kim (who
\nstruggles with autism) has always woken up early, sometimes as early as four
\nthirty. She knows she’s not supposed to get up so early, so she’ll go out in
\nthe hallway, flip on the light, and go back to bed. Five minutes later she’ll
\nget up again, turn off the light, and go back to bed, only to repeat the
\nprocess again and again. When Kim starts pacing on the third floor, Jill or I
\nwill tell her to get back in bed. Because we are separated by a floor, our
\ntelling sounds more like yelling.<\/p>\n

When Jill and I get up to pray, it can really get exciting.
\nJill prays on the first floor, and I pray on the second floor. Jill is more
\nsensitive to noise than I am, so when she hears Kim pacing upstairs, she asks
\nme to tell her to be quiet. Sometimes I yell at Kim so that Jill won’t yell at me
\nto yell at Kim. <\/p>\n

In the world of autism, Kim’s pacing is called perseverating.
\nIt got so bad that we consulted her neurologist, who suggested a drug, which we
\ntried, but Kim just gained weight, so we stopped the drug and went back to yelling!<\/p>\n

Not long ago Kim started
\npacing again in the early-morning hours. I started to get out of bed, and Jill
\nasked, half-asleep, “Are you going to yell at Kim?” I said, “No, that hasn’t
\nworked for ten years, so I thought I’d pray with her.” Jill started laughing.
\n“What do you mean ten years? It’s been twenty!” <\/p>\n

I went up to Kim’s bedroom, aware that absolutely nothing I
\ncould say would stop her pacing. I went quietly over to her bed, laid my hand
\non her covers (she was pretending to be asleep), and asked the Holy Spirit to
\nquiet her. God heard our prayer. She fell asleep and didn’t go back to her
\npacing that morning. <\/p>\n

As soon as I started praying, I suddenly knew something that I
\nhadn’t know before: I had underestimated Kim’s ability to pray on her own, to
\nconnect with God. My view of her had been too narrow. In this area of her life,
\nI’d looked at her as a disabled person and not as a young woman made in the
\nimage of God, able to communicate with her heavenly Father. It created a new
\nexpectation in my heart for her, a new hope that she can grow spiritually. When
\nshe bites her wrist, I can pray with her about it. When I rub oil on her
\ncalloused wrist, I can pray with her. Instead of fighting Kim’s problems with
\nanger, I can focus on a new vision of her learning to pray. <\/p>\n

But Kim continued to pace. About every other time, I’d drag
\nmyself out of bed and pray with her. Then four months later, we moved, and her
\npacing completely stopped. We’d not realized how the diesel trucks at the
\nfactory across the street from our old house and the road noise itself were
\nwaking her up. Our new house is set back from the road and much quieter. God
\nanswered my prayer for Kim.<\/p>\n

\"kim_with_mop.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

It has been two years since we moved and Kim stopped pacing. I
\ncontinue to live in this prayer. It has so struck me that to know God (in fact,
\nto know anything – see Esther Meek’s book Longing
\nto Know<\/i>) involves an entering into it. Very specifically, the prayer has
\ngotten wider the longer I’ve watched it, in much the same way that heaven gets
\nwider the further the children go into it at the end of C. S. Lewis’ Last Battle. <\/i>That new knowledge of Kim,
\nthat she can understand spiritual things, has led to us praying together in the
\nmorning. Kim and I now have a devotional time together after breakfast. I
\nstopped doing the dishes while she was praying, and now I sit with her while
\nshe prays on her speech computer. We are on our second Bible story devotional
\nbook. She loved the Old Testament kings because they were always fighting.
\nEvery time they would have a fight, she would type out “Charge” on her speech
\ncomputer. (If you’ve seen Arsenic and Old
\nLace\u00b8 <\/i>then Kim’s insight is quite profound. The brother thinks he is Teddy
\nRoosevelt charging up San Juan hill!)<\/p>\n

This morning, one of the keys was stuck, so she was pounding
\nher fist after almost every prayer request! So, while pounding her fist, she
\nprayed that God would help her with her anger. I can’t tell you how much I love
\nthat.<\/p>\n

We’ve also discovered how thankful Kim is. Sometimes half her
\npayer time is just thanking God. Jill commented on it. I hadn’t noticed it
\nbefore, but Kim is remarkably thankful. Opening her heart up in prayer has
\nshown or given birth to a thankful spirit in Kim.<\/p>\n

It gets wider still. Kim has started to pray for people on her
\nown. She’s telling people that she is praying for them. I see her repenting
\nmore quickly, owning her sin. <\/p>\n

Charge!<\/p>\n

**For an explanation of the title “Perfectly Human,” and to read the first entry in this series, click here<\/a>. 
<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Miller is the author of A Praying Life (click here for my thoughts on this wonderful book) and Love Walked Among Us. He is also the Executive Director of seejesus.net. The following essay includes a few paragraphs from A Praying Life, with new material at the end: For some reason our daughter Kim (who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-faith","category-perfectly-human"],"yoast_head":"\nPerfectly Human**: The Wideness of Prayer by Paul Miller - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Perfectly Human**: The Wideness of Prayer by Paul Miller - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Paul Miller is the author of A Praying Life (click here for my thoughts on this wonderful book) and Love Walked Among Us. He is also the Executive Director of seejesus.net. The following essay includes a few paragraphs from A Praying Life, with new material at the end: For some reason our daughter Kim (who…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-16T13:22:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Kim_sweeping-thumb-250x187-15101-thumb-250x187-15102.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Perfectly Human**: The Wideness of Prayer by Paul Miller - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Perfectly Human**: The Wideness of Prayer by Paul Miller - Thin Places","og_description":"Paul Miller is the author of A Praying Life (click here for my thoughts on this wonderful book) and Love Walked Among Us. He is also the Executive Director of seejesus.net. The following essay includes a few paragraphs from A Praying Life, with new material at the end: For some reason our daughter Kim (who…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-06-16T13:22:55+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Kim_sweeping-thumb-250x187-15101-thumb-250x187-15102.jpg"}],"author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html","name":"Perfectly Human**: The Wideness of Prayer by Paul Miller - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Kim_sweeping-thumb-250x187-15101-thumb-250x187-15102.jpg","datePublished":"2010-06-16T13:22:55+00:00","dateModified":"2010-06-16T13:22:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Kim_sweeping-thumb-250x187-15101-thumb-250x187-15102.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Kim_sweeping-thumb-250x187-15101-thumb-250x187-15102.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/perfectly-human-the-wideness-of-prayer-by-paul-miller.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Perfectly Human**: The Wideness of Prayer by Paul Miller"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}