Prayer

Prayer is a relationship; half the job is mine. If I want transformation, but can’t even be bothered to articulate what, exactly, I’m aiming for, how will it ever occur? So now I take the time every morning to search myself for specificity about what I am truly asking for. I kneel there in the temple with my face on that cold marble for as long as it takes for me to formulate an authentic prayer. If I don’t feel sincere, then I will stay there on the floor until I do.

This is another excerpt from Eat. Pray. Love. She writes this while practicing meditation in an Ashram in India, and while I’m not really into that whole meditation thing, her comment on prayer really resounded with me. it reminds me of when, within Christian culture, we pray for “blessings”. What does that even mean? Do we even know what kind of blessings we are looking for? Would we know if God answered our prayer for blessings if we don’t even ask for them in a certain form? Are we shorting ourselves? Are we shorting God by not allowing him to display his full power in answering our prayers?

Oh. And how many of us are this disciplined? To stay with your face on that cold marble for as long as it takes to formulate an authentic prayer? (It causes quite the back pain; believe me, I tried it this morning.) In fact…when was the last time you truly prayed an authentic prayer and not just a rub-a-dub-dub-thanks-for-the-grub? My challenge to you: formulate an authentic prayer today. And don’t get up until you do.