My Life is a Living Prayer

When you grow up in church you get real use to hearing prayers. Generally, they're long and full of eloquent soliloquies about God's goodness and mercy. There were times in the baptist churches of our childhoods when we can remember prayers lasting for an hour or longer. Times when it seemed the prayers were punctuated with singing and long piano solos and lasted for what felt like forever when you're seven and have to take a bathroom break. Do you remember these quotes from the Bible...

...Even the rocks and trees shall cry out praises to the
Lord [so] Let everything that has breath praise the
Lord...

A whisper is just as powerful a prayer as the long drawn out monologues of our childhoods. Maya Angelou once said,

'Thank You' is a complete prayer.

If 'thank you' is a complete sentence, why wouldn't it be a complete prayer? Why wouldn't "help" be a complete prayer? There's no formula for praying. Prayer and meditation are synonyms for us. Most practitioners see meditation as great silences. We see them as great communions. In meditation and prayer you get the directions you need to move your life forward. Prayer is about communion. It's about connection. When we pray it's to get back in touch with something bigger than ourselves. We pray because in our prayer we gain understanding and a sense of belonging you simply can't get anywhere else. We make our lives harder than they should be because we don't follow the path that has been made for us. Prayer takes us back there. Your life, of course, is the living prayer of this blog's title. How can your life be a living prayer? Khalil Gibran wrote in The Prophet

I cannot teach you how to pray in words. God listens not to your words save when He Himself utters them through your lips. And I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains. But you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart, And if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence, 'Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth..."

Your life is the prayer God prayed. You are divine and deserving. We encourage you to use prayer and meditation. By sitting still and silently communing with your Higher Power you move right into the life of your dreams.

Amen.