PAPA : Good

     As I accompany my husband on a business trip this week, reading by the pool is my refreshing lot. Poolside with The PAPA Prayer makes the experience quite satisfying.

     In my final July blog I vowed to spend August focusing on PAPA; that will not be difficult. I love the book and have studied it for years. In this entry I begin at the beginning. I start with introductory quotes from the book. This early on, it would be premature to quench thirsts, but hopefully the following will pique PAPA appetites:

1. My friend turned toward me and said, "Suppose when you picked me up [in the car], the first thing I said to you had been, 'Larry, I need...advice...and...could you...pick up a prescription...and oh, by the way, any chance of a loan? '...         I don't know how to just be with God. So I ask Him for lots of things... (The PAPA Prayer, p. xiv).
2. But if God is so good as you represent Him, and if He knows all that we need, and better than we do ourselves, why should it be necessary to ask Him for anything?     I answer, What if He knows Prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object in God's idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need--the need of Himself? (emphasis mine)... Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of that prayer. So begins a communion, a talking with God, a coming-to-one with Him, (emphasis mine) which is the sole end of prayer. (George MacDonald, The PAPA Prayer Introductory remarks).