Homecoming :
Stories of Living in God's Way
The Spiritual Practice of Prayer – Rob Heppenstall
The spiritual practice of prayer has taken many forms throughout my life and continues to evolve and challenge me both when I least expect it and when I need it most. When I first learned how to pray, I understood prayer as a simple telephone conversation between me and God. Quite literally, my mother would ask me whether I would like to “dial or hang up” before we began our bedtime prayers in order to decide who would go first and last.
I quickly began to understand, however, that there is no “hanging up” on God. One day, as we were riding in our car, my mother shut her eyes and paused at a stop sign as an ambulance sped past us. When I asked her why she had closed her eyes like that, her explanation showed me that prayer cannot be confined to church, meals, and bedtime—prayer is needed most when you least expect it.
I have generally thought of myself as a pretty good, pretty consistent “pray-er,” but, when initially contemplating this short reflection I began to realize that my prayers have recently become overly routine and a bit tepid. Ironically (and somewhat tragically), a few things happened right around that same time for which the only way I knew to respond was through prayer.
While traveling for work, I got an email from a Haitian friend of mine describing first hand some of the destruction Hurricane Hanna had caused in her town. Her house had been completely destroyed and there was really no way for anyone to get food (a bridge had also collapsed). I felt helpless and powerless as I was so unable to do anything but pray. So, there I was, on my knees with watery eyes at the Hampton Inn in Newark, NJ, praying for something I thought I could do nothing about. Looking back, prayer should not have felt like a last resort, but instead should have been my first priority in trying to respond to such a crisis.
As a human, I must accept that I cannot be everywhere at once and can do very little to address most of the world’s many problems. But as a Christian, I can take heart that God is present everywhere there is pain and suffering and that my prayers will not go unheard.
Since that night in Newark, I’ve tried to take that tragedy as a wake-up call to my prayer life. I am trying to pray anywhere and everywhere and I am working hard to make sure that my prayers are not said with a flippant attitude on may way toward something else (easier said than done). I need to truly realize that God is always listening (yes, Jeff, the mic is always on...), but that in order to deepen that constant "conversation" I must treat it with the respect and focus that a relationship with the Almighty deserves.
