His first and only pastoral assignment was a bust. George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a 27-year-old called to a small church off the coast of England in 1851. His parishioners complained he was too imaginative in his preaching and not dogmatic enough. It didn’t help matters that he said in a sermon that animals might share in the afterlife. He lasted there only two years. Already married, George and Louisa were already on the way of having 11 children and money was tight. George took up writing and his imaginative spirit took flight. Over the course of the next 40 years, he wrote fiction (31 novels), theology (5 books), poetry (12 volumes), and fantasy literature (4 adult books and 2 children’s books). Today, he is regarded as the father of modern fantasy literature. He influenced writers who came after him like C.S. Lewis who said he never wrote a book that didn’t quote him. Lewis Carroll sent MacDonald a sample story to read to his children. MacDonald sent back his critique and the result was the classic children’s tale Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Consider what he wrote about 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.” You might want to read that quote again. It’s that good! So is his prayer that follows here:
George MacDonald
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.