What is prayer...
Tears are prayer
Pain is prayer
Laughter is prayer
Love is prayer
Hugs are prayer
Kisses are prayer
Smiles are prayer
I make the mistake of thinking prayer is only that time I make requests but it isn't. Romans 8:26 says there are prayers which aren't utterable words but "groanings". The spirit intercedes through these groanings. We groan when we feel pain or loss but we also groan when we feel beauty and pleasure, like when you eat a delicious steak and your eyes roll up into your head and you mutter things.
I see prayer as poetry. A way of expressing beauty in our world. When I eat that delicious steak, I may not have words for how tender and juicy it is but you can tell what I'm feeling by the ecstasy on my face.
There is a mission statement posted on my wall and I recently shortened it to something more manageable than a paragraph. It is simply this:
See life as poetry
I believe if I see myself and the world around me as a poem God is composing, I will be filled with the same hope, beauty and transcendence I feel when I read Whitman or Thomas. For me, prayer is a part of that poetry...maybe even is the poetry itself.
In the statements at the top, replace "prayer" with "poetry". It translates because each are speaking of a beauty within and beyond our world.
How do you see life?
What are other ways we pray?
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