Most of us find it difficult to pray. We want to pray, make resolutions to pray, but never quite get around to actually praying. Why?
It’s not so much that we are insincere, ill-motivated, or lazy, it’s just that invariably we are too tired, too distracted, too restless, too emotionally preoccupied, too angry, too busy, or feel ourselves too distant from God to feel that we can actually pray. We have too many headaches and too many heartaches. And so we come home after a long day and simply can’t work up the energy to pray and instead call a friend, watch television, rest, putter round the house, or do anything to soothe our tiredness and wind down from the pressures of life, except pray.
So how can we pray when both our bodies and our hearts are chronically stressed and on over-load? By understanding what prayer really is. Prayer, as one of its oldest definitions puts it, is “lifting mind and heart to God.”
That sounds simple but it is hard to do. Why?
Because we have the wrong notion of what it means. We unconsciously nurse the idea that we can only pray when we are not distracted, not bored, not angry, not emotionally preoccupied, and not caught up in our many heartaches and headaches so that we can give proper attention to God in a reverent and loving way. God then is like a parent who only wants to see us on our best behavior and we only go into his presence when we have nothing to hide, are joy-filled, and can give God praise and honor.
If we take seriously that prayer is “lifting mind and heart to God” then every feeling and every thought we have is a valid entry into prayer, no matter how irreverent, unholy, selfish, or angry that thought or feeling might seem. Simply put, if you go to pray and you are feeling bored, pray boredom; if you are feeling angry, pray anger; if you are feeling grumpy, pray grumpy, and if you are feeling full of fervor and want to praise and thank God, pray fervor. Every thought or feeling is a valid entry into prayer. What’s important is that we pray what’s inside of us and not what we think God would like to find inside of us.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that we try to pray precisely when we most need it, that is, when we are feeling bad, irreverent, sinful, emotionally preoccupied and unworthy of praying. All of these feelings can be our entry into prayer. No matter the headache or the heartache, we only need to lift it up to God.
