Four years ago today, I quit quiet times. I was frustrated with my own inability to do them and I didn’t think they were helpful. Since then, there have been periods where I’ve tried some different spiritual disciplines, but on the whole, I generally suck at any type of consistency with those types of things. After some conversations with my advisor at Princeton, we decided it might be good for me to work on some consistency with prayer. It’s probably one of the simplest and most difficult independent studies I could be assigned: pray for 15 minutes every day. That’s it. We called it Authenticity in the Christian Life. As one who is about to head out into the ministry, it only makes sense for my own authenticity that I be a praying person. One can’t really encourage others to do something they aren’t doing.
I was looking forward to it, but I was also apprehensive and scared at the same time. What if it doesn’t really do anything for me? What if I feel like it doesn’t really make any difference in my life? It’s been many years since I’ve tried something on a regular basis like this, what if I simply can’t do it?
But I have been doing it. Sure, I’ve missed a couple days here and there. But I have making time in my day for prayer. One thing that has helped me is to pray in a variety of ways. Here are some things I’ve tried:
- Lectio divina
- Picking a phrase and using it as a mantra to repeat as I walk Sadie at night
- Listening to the Pray As You Go Podcast, produced by British Jesuits
- Praying with the online resource Sacred Space
- Just sitting in silence
Sometimes it’s more meaningful than others – but that’s just how it goes I think. I had to try a few different podcasts before I found one I enjoyed. Some nights Sadie behaves well on the walk and I can stay focused. But when she’s running and jumping around me as I try to pick up her poop, “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner” doesn’t have as much potency as other times.
But the other day, I noticed something. I was driving around Princeton and stopped at a red light. And I started praying. Once I realized what was happening, I was kind of shocked. Being in a prayerful state is not very usual for me when I’m in the car on Rt 1 in New Jersey (although, it is perhaps for others in the car with me when I’m driving…). But it seems that one benefit of setting aside 15 minutes to pray every day is that it just becomes part of your day. So, now – I find myself praying at random times of the day as well.
I certainly don’t have this mastered, and I know there will be plenty of other days I’ll miss in the future, but I think I’m going to try and keep this in my daily routine after the semester and independent study is completed. I know you are all very busy as well, but if this sounds like something you’d like to work on, I’d encourage you to try it along with me. Start with even just 5 minutes, and then let me know how it’s going for you.
Adam,
Have you ever used Phyllis Tickle’s “The Divine Hours?”
Thanks for sharing your story — it is a great encouragement!
i’ve had a very similar experience. and like you i’ve been trying to set aside some time each day to pray. i’ve been really sucking recently, but i find it especially fulfilling when do in odd circumstances and the mundane tasks like your example. eventually, i’d like to learn to live as an act of prayer, continually making myself aware of the presence of the divine all around me.
in that respect, brother lawrence has been a great inspiration and example to me.
anyway, thanks for sharing. you’re not alone. i will try it along with you.
What a great story. Real and Authentic. Thanks for saying what many of us have a hard time saying.
John Ortberg suggests starting out with just 5 minutes of prayer per day and working upward from there. We call it the Ortberg challenge. His book, The Life You’ve Always Wanted (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Youve-Always-Wanted-Disciplines/dp/0310246954) is a great reference on spiritual disciplines.
my wife and are are using the guide to prayer for ministers and other servants. we began on the first sunday in advent. it is nice. i wrote a post about it on my blog along with an entry on an episcopal gathering we attended two weeks ago.
A little book that I read later rather than sooner, Brother Lawrence’s Practicing the Presence (of God) might interest you. Praying at stop lights is a 21st version of praying while washing dishes or tending to sheep (the flock in the fields for real type…)
There is something powerful about this. It says that conversation can happen with the Lord any time. I think I often had said this but had not often done it. I think Paul must have prayed with out ceasing in this way. Imagine Paul going out his front door to get wood for the fire or what ever it is that Paul would be doing and he is carrying on this conversation with God about being the Chief among sinners or something. We love to think about Paul as this guy who sat around with ink stained fingers writting the letters to the church, but the truth is he led a life, one full of people and conversation with them and God. I love the point where our walks become authentic.
Adam, I’m so glad that you are finding new joy in prayer. Yes, it is a discipline, and yes, we often suck at disciplines, as someone else wrote in a comment. But if we are not being disciplined, then we are not true sons, as Hebrews 12 points out. The Christian walk should be difficult at times, and glorious at times. Without the hardship of stumbling along in our “quiet times”–our times of Bible study and prayer, we are stagnant and not allowing ourselves to be shaped by the Word and God’s speaking to us through prayer. I remember an illustration Jerry Sittser used in his “Intro to Christianity” class–our quiet times are like going out to sea and putting up our sails. Sometimes there is the wind of the Spirit, times when God’s Spirit is moving and speaking and shaping us into men and women of Christ. Other times, there is not much wind, and we are merely practicing the discipline.
I also wanted to say something about reasons behind prayer. You have called your times of prayer “Authenticity in the Christian Life.” We all love to be authentic and real. Is not also the motivation to pray because that is all we have? We pray because we are desperate–desperate to see the Lord’s face, to hear a word of truth, to meet with Him. Desperate to determine His will for our lives, desperate for His glory to be shining through us. Desperate for our brothers and sisters to find the Lord, desperate for those places in the world where there is strife and suffering, desperate for those we work with to know truth and joy and freedom, these things found only in the Lord. I think 15 minutes of prayer is a worthy goal, but let us realize our absolute need of and desperation for the Lord, and turn to Him as often as we can, while at stoplights, yes; while at work, while with our friends. And let us embrace this discipline enough to stay up late or arise early in the morning to get on our knees and praise our Lord and Maker, intercede for those we love, and pray for peace in our world. Let’s think of those great heroes of the faith, like Paul, or like Thomas a Kempis, or like Hudson Taylor, and, “…since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Heb 12:1)