Praying by Creating
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
August 3, 2025
Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. This week we continue to look at creativity and our scripture is another short one. This time from 2 Timothy 1:7 from the Message version.
“God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.”
One afternoon at my previous Meeting, I became engaged in a conversation with my secretary, Laurel. I had mentioned how amid all that was going on in the world, I was having a hard time focusing on prayer.
Actually, as the conversation went further, I vulnerably admitted that the idea of prayer was becoming more and more difficult to understand and engage. I shared with her that I had long moved pass asking God to find my keys or unjamming the traffic on my way across town, but (at that time) I was beginning to wrestle with whether God was as personal as we had always made him out to be.
It is interesting here at First Friends, I find myself talking with people about prayer more than I am actually praying with them. There is a lot of skepticism and doubt around prayer. For some prayer is simply no more than a magic spell, or the quarter to the vending-machine-God. Last week, someone from our meeting posted this quote by Ricky Gervais and said they were pondering it:
“Arrogance is asking a god who wouldn’t stop the holocaust to find your car keys.”
That has me thinking. As well, some think prayer is not about what God does as much as it is about what we do, that our prayers are answered by our actual participation in them, not by a Divine proclamation.
Do we believe that when we ask someone to send up a prayer or even (as we Quakers say) “hold this in the Light” that a miraculous change is going to happen?
It seems we believe it more fully when bad things are happening, when a friend is dying, or in a health emergency. Just this week I sent out a prayer request for our son, Sam, who was diagnosed with Mono and has been to the hospital twice, doctor twice, and now to a specialist to get to the bottom of his situation. It has been a long week for Sue and I with Sue starting school on Thursday, two trips to IU to help Lewis move out of his apartment and to a storage unit, and a full week at First Friends. We needed others to hold Sam up, send healing energy, and remind us that there is a community that surrounds our family. Something we easily forget and can take for granted.
And then there is the political cover-all that we hear way too often after a natural disaster, school shooting, or racial violence – oh, you are in our “Thoughts and Prayers.” A phrase that has completely lost its meaning in our day and age – as its pronouncement seems hollow and unauthentic.
Let me jump back to my conversation with Laurel. She and I would get into the weeds on the issue of prayer. She loved to delve deep, but in her often-quiet nature, she also listened deeply. I appreciated that about her. I also appreciated that Laurel was an artist. Her mind thought creatively. Sometimes so out of the box that others would not catch on at first. But as our conversation that day continued, never once did she push back on my struggle or argue a right way to pray.
What I remember the most about this conversation was that she said, “Maybe you are doing it wrong for who you are.” Now, I was taught as a child like many of you to pray before going to bed, pray before meals, pray before tests, pray for our leaders…and I could go on. I remember the first prayer I ever learned:
Now, I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
And this I ask for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Looking back those are interesting words to say just before heading to sleep – I sense they have probably produced some nightmares over the years.
And then there was the Lord’s Prayer which I had to memorize and say every Sunday in church. Most prayers were wrote in my childhood, from a prayer book, liturgy, hymnal, or the Bible itself.
I believe Laurel had a similar experience growing up, but on this day, she looked at me and said, “Have you ever heard of praying in color?” She paused as I must have had a quizzical look on my face. She then continued by saying, “You’re an artist, it seems you may find this helpful. There is a book about it.” The next day she brought me a copy of “Praying in Color” by Sybil MacBeth and suggested we offer a class at our Meeting on this book.
Now, please understand. Laurel knew I was struggling, she also knew I was an artist and that I found blending the two helpful. The book was very simplistic but came right out and said, this book is for:
· Those who no longer could find the words to pray.
· For people who’s mind wondered when they prayed.
· For people who could not sit still.
· And finally, it was for people who needed a new way to pray.
That described me well at this time and Laurel knew it.
This simple book was the beginning of a creative exploration that led me down a path of much greater discovery. That book opened a new door to my creative expression and my relationship with the Divine.
For several years, I would listen to devotions, sermons, and lectures, take notes through drawn pictures and when I was finished I would have a visual representation of both what the Spirit had been teaching me, but also the creative expressions I made. It gave me a tangible vision of what God was saying to me and how I interpreted that into visual art. If you are familiar with Sketch Notes, this was Sketch Note praying.
But I did not stop there. Soon I noticed that when I would paint, sketch, garden, rearrange a room, even write an article or a sermon, I was finding it a prayerful creative expression and a connection with the Divine. What I was beginning to realize was that any art form or creative expression could be a way to pray, reflect, and cultivate my relationship with the Divine. It did not have to be the stagnate forms and structures I had grown up with or even been taught.
This is why last week I said that being creative is key for our spiritual formation and growth. And why I believe deep down it is key to our lives in the Beloved Community. We each bring our own creative expression to the table, and we need each of those to make us complete. But that also means we need to recognize, acknowledge and affirm and support all these creative expressions in our midst.
A few years ago now, I took a spiritual retreat at the Fall Creek Abby. It was a week-long retreat. I went into it with the hopes of renewing my relationship with the Divine. That in itself would seem to necessitate spending some time in prayer. I noticed immediately that I was struggling with silencing my heart. I tried sitting in different chairs throughout the Abby, opening prayer books that I had brought, and nothing seemed to engage me. Finally, I laid down on my bed and fell into a deep sleep. My exhaustion was getting in the way of my connecting with the Divine.
When I awoke, I was refreshed, and the creative juices were ready and flowing. I began by doing some writing. Then some reading, and then some drawing. I took a walk through the neighborhood and studied the architecture, noticing the difference in the new and old construction, the gardens and landscaping. What struck me the deepest was the gentrification of the neighborhood, and I could not help but think about all the people displaced and moved out of this area for more affluent people to move in.
The next day, I attended my first art class at the Indy Art Center. This was part of my week-long retreat as I had learned that to make a connection with the Divine I had to engage my own creative process. We were working in a variety of mediums starting on day one and I found myself having almost a transcendent moment in that class. What I was learning was that the creative forces within me were opening me to the Spirit’s leading and my engagement with the Divine. The rest of the week, I found myself opening up, hearing, and even the seeing that of God around me…and unbeknownst to me, the Spirit wanted to have a conversation with me about allowing myself to doubt and question. Even the culminating piece of art I created to illustrate the week of wrestling, conversations, fist-shaking, and laughter with the Spirit looked much different than any of my other pieces. Very little color or patterns or definition. Instead, this painting creatively expressed my soul’s struggle with the Divine.
When I was a child, I often heard that prayer is communication with God – but that seemed kind of weird, since communication had a two-way element and most of my prayers were me talking or asking with no response from God.
Ever since Laurel gave me that simple little book, I began looking at prayer in a completely different way. What I was realizing was that we are each born with gifts and talents – what I will call creative expressions. We all bring something to the table that we can offer. And we need all these different expression in our faith community – otherwise things look rather uniform or cookie-cutter. And that creative expression is probably the most likely way we are going to connect with that of God within us. Because it is uniquely you and me.
I remember several months after Laurel gave me the book, I was sharing it with a friend who was a writer and a person whose creative expression was ideation. He always had creative ideas, but he needed others to help implement or see them to fruition. I was telling him about my discovery of how prayer doesn’t have to be limited to words but can utilize our personal creative expressions.
He said, “That sounds like Flannery O’Connor.” My quizzical look let him continue. He then shared a quote of hers that has reshaped my idea of prayer to this day.
“The artist prays by creating.”
Since there is that of God in all of us, and since we are co-creators with the Divine, as I said last week, through the creative act, we channel the spark of imagination that resides in us all, honoring the Divine presence in our creativity and in the beauty, we share with one another.
Whether your creative expression takes the form of drawing or painting like me, or music like Eric, Jim, Lynda, Dawn, or poetry like the late Linda Lee, or card making like our friend Rachel, or planning Prayer Actions like Stuart, or making a meal for someone like Beth, or offering medical care like our Friend, Mary, or giving gifts like Rebecca, or the gift of laughter like our Friend, Mark, or writing his stories like Jeff…and I could go on and on…but this is how we connect in a much deeper way with the Divine within us all.
Actually, as I have said in the last couple of sermons, I believe everyone has this creative expression and whether they know it or not, it is their way to show us that of God within them, and when we engage that, we are being brought into a deeper relationship with the Divine in our midst and with that of God in each of us.
As Quakers, I wonder how often we limit ourselves by confining the Spirit into specific spiritual practices. The Spirit’s imagination, creativity, and beauty is reflected all around you and me, if we are willing to engage them, or maybe I should say, create them.
I want to close this morning with a poem from the late Maya Angelou who understood allowing her creative expression to become her way to connect with the Divine and others. Obviously, her creative expression was writing. Just allow these words to speak to your soul and condition before we enter waiting worship.
art is prayer
make
write to get closer to all
to truth
to spirit
to connection with the great presence
the great flow of life
praying
grateful
find your peace in yourself
with yourself
it’s in a place within
in god I live and breathe & have my being
that is the place of peace
love is closer than air
louder than hearing
sit in it
Now, as we enter waiting worship, let’s take a moment to ponder the following queries.
· What are my struggles with prayer?
· Am I finding ways to connect that utilize my creative expressions?
· Am I acknowledging all the gifts around me and seeing that of God in them?
· What might embracing our creative expression at First Friends do for our impact in our community and world?