Too Busy not to Pray

I am not really sure when I began this practice but I imagine it was after I heard the quote "Work, work, from morning until late at night. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall have to spend the first three hours in prayer." ~ Martin Luther I know I had heard this quote many times in my life but there was a change point a few years back when I realized how right Luther was.

Now, I don't spend three hours in prayer every morning but I do spend time in prayer every morning. Some might wonder if my practice of prayer 'really counts' but it is the most consistent spiritual practice in my life, and it works for me because for me it is 'doable.'

Here it is: Every morning I set my alarm for somewhere between 20mins - a half hour earlier than I actually need to get up. (I have always favoured the 'snooze' button but now I put it to really good use). I wake up to my alarm I automatically hit snooze and I begin to pray. I don't get out of bed and on my knees I stay in bed and I pray that before I even begin my day God will be with me. Each day my prayer is different. It might be a prayer for patience, or a prayer for peace, or a prayer against allowing business to move me into stress, it might be a prayer for a person I am meeting with that day or an event I am about to lead or participate in. Whatever it is I start me day in prayer.

So I encourage you to at least try it for the rest of lent:

Begin each day with a prayer of mindfulness--that you will be attentive to the ways God is present in the world--in your life--throughout the day.

And then I encourage you again near the end of the day, ask yourself, “Where did I see God today?” It’s really that simple. If you have trouble answering the question, it might help to start by thinking of the people you encountered. How was the light of Christ present in them—or what opportunities did they present for you to be the hands of God? Where did you encounter the natural world today? How is the glory of God revealed in both the beauty and the vulnerability of the creation? Where did you see imagination, creativity, new birth? Where did you see suffering

“There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God.” Brother Lawrence