Prayer

Sometimes my prayer times are smooth streams. Words flow easily from my burdened mind to God’s throne, and I feel a real sense of the Holy Spirit. 

Other times, my thoughts are as scattered as a class of preschoolers dismissed to recess. They’re everywhere, in no particular order, running in every direction, and jammed with distraction. 

I give you full permission to laugh out loud, but I don’t know how to swim! Not knowing how to swim is fine, of course, until you are drowning.

Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines the word lifeline as “something regarded as indispensable for the protection of life,” or “a line (such as a rope) used for saving or preserving life.” Prayer is like that lifeline that saves and preserves our daily lives.

I sit with a lump in my throat trying to select a package of graduation pictures for my high school senior. I decided weeks ago that most of these pictures were overposed and overpriced. Now, however, I look at these cap and gown pictures realizing that they may be the only graduation pictures of my son. Senior year is ending like a dystopian novel. Spreading virus. Illness and death. Social distancing. Canceled everything….perhaps including graduation.…

In January of this year, inspired by our churches’ teaching, my friend, Sarah, and I began praying together once a week at school. For a little over six months, we would find an empty room somewhere on campus every Thursday, kick off our shoes, and sprawl out with our Bibles for the couple of free hours we had between classes—and looking back on that time, I am amazed at the faithfulness of God to teach…