Letters to God

It seems I’ve been writing a lot about prayer lately.  For whatever reason, the Lord really has me in His school of prayer right now.  I find myself oft asking the same request that the disciples did, “Lord, teach me to pray.”  The wonderful thing about such a request is that He stands ready, willing, and even eager to enroll us in this school of prayer.  I had another lesson in this process today, something that I wanted to share…

You see, I often run into a recurring problem when I pray.  I start off really praying and, almost without recognizing it, end up talking more to myself than to God.  Has that ever happened to you?  You think you’re praying and then, all of a sudden, you realize that you’re really just thinking to yourself?  Now, I’m not totally convinced that this isn’t part of prayer.   There have been times that this has happened where I really feel like the Lord was guiding my train of thought and actually speaking to me — albeit subtly — in this way.  But sometimes it is just simply my mind wandering.  It drives me crazy.

I really needed to spend some time praying tonight, and wanted to make sure that I didn’t “drift”.  I decided that maybe shaking things up a little might help… you know… different place, different time, different technique… something.  I often pray while I walk around my community.  And this is what I started to do today.  But for some reason, I felt like I should take my prayer journal with me this time.  As I walked, I stopped for a bit at a little gazebo in a small park.  Planting myself down on a picnic bench, I started thumbing through the pages.  When I reached the blank pages toward the back, the idea occurred to me to write a letter to God.  Almost without thinking about it, I began writing… just pouring out my heart to Him.  It was odd, because it didn’t feel like writing a letter at all.  Oddly enough, it reminded me of when I used to sit in church with my brothers.  Not being able to talk out loud, we would get out a notebook and write back and forth to each other.  Instead of passing the notebook back and forth, we would just sit there and watch while the other one wrote… reading right along with every new word.  This is the image that came to my mind as I wrote… not some letter to be sent or communicated at some later date, but the image of my Father in Heaven, leaning over me, hand on my shoulder, reading as I prayed in ink and paper instead of audible words.

The cool thing about it was that it kept my communication focused on Him… kept my mind from wandering.  It was also cool that, after just a few minutes of this, I found myself putting the notebook aside and continuing my prayer in my heart.  It ended up being a very focused, very rewarding time with God.

I don’t think this will be my “new form” of prayer, by any means, but it’s certainly something I may turn to again when I’m not feeling particularly connected in my prayer life.

Getting the Cart Before the Horse

I had the opportunity to go to some great workshops on prayer earlier this week as part of the 40 Days of Prayer for the Treasure Valley that is launching on February 25th.  I’ll probably go on to post in greater detail about some of what really spoke to me in these workshops but, for now, just wanted to share this simple little thought.

One of the presenters asked this question:  “Which is easier, to evangelize people or to pray for people?”  The unanimous answer of the group was that it was easier to pray than to go out and evangelize.  “And don’t you think that people who are prayed for would be easier to evangelize?”  Again, a unanimous yes from the group.  “So why would you go out and try to evangelize people that have not been prayed for?”

Now, he wasn’t trying to say that instead of evangelizing we should be praying.  He was only pointing out something that I do all the time.  I get all caught up in great bigs plans to evangelize without spending hardly any time at all in prayer for those I hope will hear and accept the gospel message.  I get the cart before the horse, so to speak.

These workshops are just one of many ways that the Lord seems to be speaking to me about the importance, power, and effectiveness of prayer lately.  I’m the kind of guy that often comes up with great big ideas — and even attempts a few of them — only to see the desire or interest to complete them fade away.  I think I’m beginning to understand that this is at least partially because I don’t start out with prayer as I should.  I get an idea in my head and just run with it.  It’s really no different than trying to evangelize an unprayed for people.  It is trying to undertake an unprayed for project.  I hope I’m learning my lesson, especially since the next project is about ready to launch.  Only this time, the project IS prayer, so maybe that’ll help. 

Do I Treat God Like A Crosswalk Button?

I noticed it today as I took a walk.  As I approached the crosswalk, I noticed some people standing across from me on the other side of the street.  It was a nice older couple, holding hands, talking sweetly to each other.  Or maybe they had learned to argue with happy faces after all those years.  I guess I don’t really know.  Anyway, they approached the crosswalk and the older man, all gentlemanly like, reached over and hit the crosswalk button.  And then hit it again.  And then a third time for luck, I guess.  The couple waited for a few seconds, and then the sweet little old lady reached over and hit it a few more times… kind of hard and with a little bit of an annoyed look on her face. The light finally changed (doesn’t it always?) and they crossed.  I hadn’t quite made it to the intersection yet.  We passed each other, they smiled and said hello, and continued their little walk.