Mar 19, 2023

George MacDonald

George MacDonald’s (1824-1905) initial foray into preaching was short-lived. His congregation complained that his sermons were overly imaginative and not dogmatic enough–so much so that he resigned after three years and took up writing, specializing in fantasy literature and children’s stories. We have George to thank for influencing C. S. Lewis to explore a life of faith. Lewis remarked after reading George’s fantasy novel Phantasies that he knew he had “crossed the great frontier” in his evolution from atheism to belief.
In 1880, George wrote a book of three hundred sixty-six poems for use in daily meditation and prayers, which he titled The Book of Strife in the Form of the Diary of an Old Soul. Each poem is composed of seven lines written as three sets of rhyme and a solitary punchline at the end. He intended for each poem to appear facing a blank left-hand page for readers to add their personal reflections and prayers.

While it takes time to adjust to George’s Scottish style, his deep spirituality and prayerful insights are worth the effort. Diary of an Old Soul is an intimate look into his longings, joys and struggles in everyday life. He was no stranger to hardship. His mother and two of his brothers died during his childhood. He experienced chronic emphysema and periodic bouts of depression. Four of his children preceded him in death. Yet he remained remarkably upbeat and resilient about faith. He wrote of prayer, “If God were only to hear our prayers, as he does ever and always, but to answer them as we want them answered, he would not be God our Savior, but the ministering genius of our own destruction. He may delay because it would not be safe to give us at once what we ask: we are not ready for it. To give ere we could only receive, would be to destroy the very heart and hope of prayer, to cease to be our Father. The delay itself may work to bring us nearer to our help, to increase the desire, perfect the prayer and ripen the receptive condition.”

Today’s prayer is his entry from January 10 in Diary of an Old Soul:

I am going into the business and turmoil of this day, where so many temptations may come to do less faithfully, less kindly, less diligently than the Lord would have me do. Father, into thy hands. Am I going to do a good deed? Then, of all times, Father, into thy hands, lest the enemy should have me now. Am I going to do a hard duty, from which I would gladly be turned aside? To refuse a friend’s request? Am I in pain? Take my spirit, Lord, and see, as thou art wont, that it has no more than it can bear. Am I going to die? Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. For it is thy business, not mine. Thou wilt know every shade of my suffering. Thou wilt care for me with thy perfect fatherhood.

Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.