Our community group talked the last time we met about the role of prayer during our time together. We had an open and honest discussion about how prayer has played out in each of our own lives. It was obvious that all of us have spent much time sincerely talking to God in our own ways. We’ve prayed in forms from ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication) to simply, “God help me.”I have found in my own journey with prayer that I have no problem being in an ongoing dialogue with God. We came into the world with an open line to the I Am and we’ll move through eternity with the same organic openness. I know I am the weakest link in the conversation. Can I trust what I think I’ve heard God communicating to me? I was on a path to ordination but, obviously, I got that wrong. I thought I wasn’t retiring but moving from one career path to another. I have had to deconstruct the whole notion of prayer because of getting such crucial decisions wrong and the impact this has had on my faith. Don’t get me wrong, ultimately this has not been a bad thing.
So I have completely different expectations of prayer at this stage of my spiritual life. I may still ask for direction regarding decisions to be made but I spend much more time in listening and asking for direction regarding how to just be. I find prayer to be the place where life gets centered, focused and true. K. in our community group suggested that we sit in silence with each other. I welcome this opportunity because it is much more powerful to sit with others in a centering prayer or a guided mediation then to be filling the air with requests that we know the answers to if we are asking God to show us how to be in the world.
Prayer can take on new life if we’re learning to pray out of a servant heart. Some prayer habits need to die. It’s okay.
1 comment:
Very well said, Deb.
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