Quote: The middle voice

An interesting quote about the active nature of Prayer. Quoted in Phillip Yancey's 'Prayer - Does it make a difference?':

"My grammer book said, 'The middle voice is that use of the verb which describes the subjects as participating in the result of the action.' I read that now, and it reads like a description of Christian Prayer - 'the subject as participating in the results of the action.'
I do not control the action; that is a pagan concept of prayer, putting the gods to work by my incarnations of rituals. I am not controlled by the action; that is a Hindu concept of prayer in which I slump pasively into the impersonal and fated will of gods and goddesses. I enter into the action begun by another, my creating and saving Lord, and find myself participating in the results of the action. I neither do it, nor have it done to me; I will to participate in what is willed. "

- Eugene Peterson