Hope Lyda - Life as a Prayer: Devotions to Inspire, Invitations to Be Still

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray Ill tell you what Id do. Id go out into a great big field all alone or into the deep, deep, woods, and Id look up into the skyupupupinto that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then Id just FEEL a prayer.

L UCY M AUD M ONTGOMERY , A NNE OF G REEN G ABLES

H ows your prayer life?

When I hear someone say this, first I hope they arent talking to me. Then my imagination and sense of humor team up and I envision myself existing in some parallel life where I wear a white frock, cinched in the middle with a satin sash, and go about my day enshrouded in a holy mist as I shop for cat food, scrub my bathroom floor, and emit prayers for world peace. This isnt real. (And I know it isnt real because Im cleaning my floors.) In my journey of talking to God, however, I have experienced something that is real. Life is a prayer. All of life. Every moment is an invitation to experience God.

How have you encountered or lived out prayer in the past? How about now? Do you bow your head and kneel? Do you wait until youre in sanctuaries or seated in pews to pray? Do you lace up worn hiking boots and head for the trail to have your most intimate conversations with the Creator? Is prayer still an ethereal idea that hasnt yet taken on flesh and substance in your day-to-day existence?

As a shy kid who spent a good amount of time mulling over ideas and wandering the rooms of my mind, I was smitten with a God who is always available for talks and who is not only attentive but also creative about capturing my attention. Id view situations through the lens of God is in this or God is with me. Even when I wasnt sure about myself, I was certain of Gods presence. As I got older, I kept the dialogue going with God. Though, I know there were seasons when I did more talking than listening.

The big shift in how I view prayer happened when I accompanied my husband through a long health journey. Initially I prayed frequently and fervently over decisions and for healing, resolution, next steps, and insight. But as months in the trenches of the unknown turned into years, speaking the same prayers added to the weariness. I found myself saying Ditto as my prayer because I had nothing new to take to God. The needs were the same. My gratitude for provision and care remained genuine. But I was tired. The kind of exhaustion that changes your brain.

I wondered if I was ending my perpetual thread of dialogue with God.

Had I lost my way into easy conversation with the Creator? The answer was no. I felt more in tune with him. I was encountering Christ in those trenches. So what was happening?

I wasnt losing touch with God. After years of talking to him and writing more than 20 prayer books and devotionals, I was expanding my view of what it meant to interact with Jesus. I was increasing my ability and willingness to lean into the Spirit and seek hope and leading.

I noticed that my gratitude wasnt saved for a specific time of prayer but was expressed in the moment and through the moment. Gods responses and my understanding of them were unveiled in the everyday encounters and experiences that were and still are becoming profound and more vivid despite my fatigue. Im learning to be with Jesus as I live, breathe, sleep, awaken, weep, laugh, connect, hope, fumble, eat, walk and yes, pray.

When we consider our lives to be ongoing interactions with God, we can do as Anne of Green Gables imagines and feel the prayer. We can go about our day breathing, living, and being prayer as we offer our lives to God and experience Emmanuel, God with uswhen we roll out of bed, roll our eyes at our to-do lists, or roll up our sleeves to prepare for challenges. A deep relationship develops as we willingly become vessels through which Gods love can flow upward and outward. From tip of toe to crown of head. From hearts thrum to a dreams hum.

LIFE as a Prayer

Being tuned in to Gods presence leads us to experience prayer as continuous intimacy with him and with our own lives because were given new perspective and a lens of wonder and wisdom. We are privy to holy nudges that point out what we wouldve otherwise missed. The splendid color in the blue jays feather left like a calling card in the garden. The baby in the stroller giggling and reaching toward us in a pseudo high-five gesture, as if to celebrate solidarity in the human adventure. I imagine the Creator leaning in to catch the whisper of our thoughts or the wisp of one of those most-assuredly genius ideas we have just before the alarm clock shocks us into ordinary routine. I anticipate Abba placing a hand on the small of our backs to guide us through terrain we face with our knees knocking. I sigh with gratitude, sensing holy fingers stroking our hair when were weeping or longing for a tender touch.

We experience life as a prayer when we begin a day willing to look at and respond to people, circumstances, questions, awakenings, and challenges with Gods heart. This devotional is a gathering of what I call slice of life meditations, along with prompts and offerings that invite you to look at and listen to your life in this new way.

Im not a fan of spiritual shortcuts, because they usually end up at touristy and trendy emotional places. But you and I want to live in prayer, not just visit it. After my season of exhaustion, however, and now during my unfurling back to life, I am grateful for travel companions who guide me with instruction and caring questions, and who create space for me to listen to God. I am thankful for those who, like my gentle-movement class instructors, remind me to seek ease in the effort so I can release agenda and experience my pilgrimage more deeply and authentically.

On your journey through these topical devotions, I hope to be this companion for you. Ill settle into the passenger seat, and from that perspective Ill locate the lookouts with breathtaking vistas and spot the roadside stands promising the juiciest spiritual nourishment. You might be tempted to turn up the volume on the radio when I ask what youre thinking or suggest that you slow down; yet youll be glad you have me along because I always pack snacks like red licorice and Cheetos.

My most important role is to champion your desire to look at life and faith anew. In honor of this role, I offer the acronym LIFE to help us consider the different ways we experience life as prayer:

L onging

I nvitation

F orward Motion

E mbodiment

When we recognize longing, invitation, forward motion, and embodiment as unique conversation starters with God, were given new ways to understand our lives as they intertwine with the divine. Lets spend a moment with each of these conversation starters. Consider which ones resonate with you the most right now. Which most draws you toward God? Does one spark a mini-epiphany about a current circumstance?

All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you.

P SALM 38:9

L onging can be the deep hunger for a missing part of life or self. It can be an ache to become courageous or healed. It can be painful during a season of emptying. It can be a wish for joy and intention. God knows our longings, but it might take us time and a bit of an awakening to know what they are. Yet even while theyre hidden from our conscious view, longings often direct or drive our steps, choices, emotions, and endeavors.

My current longing is for a longing. Okay, that might be cheating, but I cant identify my void yet because Im still working with God to excavate and understand my heart. Ive given my longing different names over the past couple of years, but only because I felt pressure to produce a labelsort of the spiritual equivalent of what one blurts out when asked, What do you want to be when you graduate from college? So, for now, I experience my longing as a prayer to be drawn into a hope and a vision. Im able to acknowledge the immediate longings I have in any given moment, from connection to healing to peace. When this is my perspective, my spirit is able to discern what God is doing and what Im doing to nurture a holy way of being.