Thoughts on Prayer...

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It seems that, as my life transitions from one season to the next, I must rediscover prayer.  I've experienced so many seasons since I first met the One who is love incarnate.

When I was a little lad, my father used to tuck me and my siblings into bed each night.  He would say good night and we would say our prayers.  They were mostly rote prayers that we had memorized (e.g. "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep...", "Our Father who art in heaven..", etc.).

Following a religious conversion experience over a decade ago I relearned how to pray.  I took off to an evangelical bibleschool in Germany and learned about praying with others and spontaneous, unscripted prayer.

In the years that followed I learned to pray in silence, to pray with my eyes and with my ears.  I learned to pray with the church throughout the ages.  I learned to pray the prayers of other as if they were mine - I learned to make them mine.  I learned to follow the guidance of the saints and martyrs of the church as I sought communion with God.  I learned the comfort of joining the great cloud of witnesses who came before me in a prayer unceasing.

Recently, my little sacred space for prayer that I had set up in my study was removed to make room for my newborn son.  I have found myself forced to rediscover - not in a major way, but in a logistical way, which is surprisingly challenging.  I had a place reserved for kneeling and for quietude.  It was a place where I could gaze upon the face of Jesus and simply be.  It was a place where I could ask for guidance, a place where I could bare my hopes and fears.  It was a sacred space that I could easily enter into.  It was very important to me and it's gone.

These shifts (both small and large) that take place during the various seasons of life often do indeed provide cause for relearning or rediscovering prayer.  I thank my God for them, for the chances to grow and face such challenges.  Christians are called to seek the divine face, to travel the road leading to greater and deepened communion with Him.  These changes, these challenges are opportunities to travel that road.  A road traveled by the heart rather than the feet.  We do not draw near, after all, by movement in place to the one who is present everywhere, but instead by a movement of the heart and of the will - this movement is only accomplished through prayer.

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