Musings on Spiritual Matters

Last week I was up in the mountains by myself.  It was a 11 mile hike up 5600 vertical feet in which I summited Mt. Belford and Mt. Oxford.  I was on the mountain for 10 hours.  It was a long day from getting out of bed at 2:40am and not arriving home until 7:00pm.  While I am in the mountains, I enjoy praying.  But this time, I did not want to stop, put my head down, come up with some words that sound religious.  In fact, I was too tired to do this.  So the majority of the time, I just talked to God.  I had a conversation with the Lord.  I talked a lot about his plan now that my dear friend Burnice is gone.  I talked about my ministry, and His plans for my life.  There was a great peace in talking to God.  I really enjoyed it more than those times I seek to pray.  There is so much pressure in a prayer.  We have told people there are certain words we need to say, there are certain elements involved in prayer.  A talk is natural, and sometimes a prayer is forced.  I really think we have hurt some people’s prayer lives because of the way we model prayer.  Maybe it is that we see public prayer, and rarely see a person talking to God.  Talking is private and praying is more public.  Really, I was praying the whole time, it was just another form of prayer.  I think it is important to teach and model to people that prayer is natural.  It is a conversation with a friend.  Some people feel that you have to use certain terms like “thee and thou.”  To them this makes the prayer more respectful.  Maybe someone would be mad that I talk to God as a friend, though one I dearly respect.  It was one of the most powerful times of prayer for me because I quit trying to get it right and just let the words flow to the Lord.  It was a breakthrough in my life.

Related posts:

1. Praying in the Mountains
2. Quit Church–It Must Be Easy
3. Started Back to Class
4. My First Criticism
5. A Prayer Party

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 10:42 am and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.