SPIRITUAL FOCUS ON BOOKS January 1, 2007 Issue

THE PRIVILEGE OF PRAYER

KIM SHIPPEY, SENIOR WRITER

ELIZABETH SHERRILL, co-author of The Hiding Place and The Cross and the Switchblade, once emphasized in a workshop on "Writing from experience" that readers like to be able to identify with an author's "struggle" to clarify a book's purpose or message. In other words, readers are less likely to be concerned with hearing from a so-called expert than identifying with the way a writer "changes and grows" through the story.

Philip Yancey appears to have absorbed that lesson well during his writing of 18 books, including Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? In this latest offering, he admits he has never stopped struggling with the act of prayer. He says he has had "seasons of contentment and gratitude, and seasons of anguish and dereliction." He has faced "mindless distraction and acute concentration, flashes of joy and bouts of irritation."

Right up front, Yancye concedes that his main qualification for writing about prayer is that he feels unqualified—but genuinely wants to learn. "More than anything else in life," he says, "I want to know God." He talks openly about his own "erratic prayer life," but sees it as a time when God has worked to "smooth the rough edges."

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