Bev Murrill comments

Bev Murrill

Have you ever witnessed a parent pulling their little child by the arm and screaming, 'stand up, you stupid idiot!'

Have you seen someone berating her partner in the street?

Have you heard some guy making ugly and cruel jokes to belittle his wife?

Have you overheard a conversation in which someone is pouring out their broken heart and fear to their friend?

We've all had times when we've seen or heard something that really made us mad or sad or overwhelmed - and then we've gone on with our lives because, after all, it's nothing to do with us and we're powerless to help.

Recently I heard a great sermon from Kate Bruce, from St. John's College in Durham during which she mentioned the concept of 'feral praying'. Let me tell you, the idea got my attention.

Feral praying is when you have no idea who the person is or what background they come from, but you can see their need and you make a wild, undomesticated decision to pray for them, despite the fact that they are a total stranger and despite the fact that they've possibly offended you. Feral praying is when you're angry or hurt or rejected by someone else's behaviour and attitudes, but you realise there's more to it than just them being a horrible person (believe me, there's ALWAYS more to it than that.) Feral praying understands that behind every ugly experience there is a devilish scheme to undermine our corporate identities as human beings created in the image of God, each with our own right to dignity, personal value, and respect.

Feral praying is when you realise you can do something about something that has nothing to do with you just through outrageous praying. It's outrageous because it's unexpected, untamed, not the norm. it's outrageous because most prayer presupposes a 'knowing' or a 'relationship' with the person or situation being prayed for. When you pray for someone you'll probably never know, or never be in a close relationship with, that's wild, untamed, undomesticated prayer. It's that kind of prayer that can really make a difference because it causes us to go to God to find out how to pray and when God and we are linked in a desire to see wrongs righted, we become an unstoppable force.

Prayer is action of the most intensive kind. When you see a frustrated mum screaming at her recalcitrant two year old, put yourself in her position and think through the issues she's facing at the moment. You can engage with God to understand how to pray for her - to get some rest, some help with the kids, the sort of financial freedom that will allow her to get a break from the unending cycle of housework, kids, and domestic abuse she may be facing.

When a car comes out of nowhere almost causing an accident and the driver abuses you as though it was somehow your fault, you can link in with God right then and become aware that people with problems often lose the capacity to behave responsibly and end up doing things that hurt other people. What if your prayer for that driver right then has the effect of averting a catastrophe further down the road?

Matthew 5:44-46 Jesus speaks to His followers saying:
'Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in Heaven... For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? And if you greet (pray for) only your brothers (family and friends), what more are you doing than the others.

Our attitude is what determines who these people are in our world. It's very easy to look with disapproval over other people's actions; in that way they become our 'enemies', because we can't associate with how they're dealing with their issues. It's true that we can't pray for everyone, but we can pray for those that God has drawn our attention to. Our attention may be for a negative reason, but it's attention nevertheless.

When negative situations caught Jesus' attention (sickness, disabilities, death), He always responded in the positive. It was our negative circumstances that caught His attention when He brought us into eternal life through His sacrifice. He is a feral God, wild, untamed; as the Narnians so aptly perceived, He's not a tame God, He's not safe and predictable. He's always done the most outrageous things and He never behaves like a normal, domestic god. I love that about Him... and I like to think that one of the things He loves about me is that I am wanting to be like Him.

There's a saying that I love. Christians have their Father's eyes. To me that means we can look at ugly situations through His eyes and see how they can be redeemed.

Be a feral pray-er! Make such a habit of it that you never stop doing it. Who knows how many lives we may save, how many relationships we may cause to be healed, how much brokenness could be mended, if we just look with our Father's eyes at the ugliness around us . and do some radical, outrageous, feral praying.