What is Prayer?

It is the moment when Heaven and Earth collide

It is the quiet, loud intimacy of relationship

Between you and God.

It is the raw, broken cry of my heart

For my friend, my child, myself.

It is the moment when I have nothing left

But tears, raw pain, deep wordless pain

That I have no words for.

But You, in Your deep love for me

Come and sit with me in the rawness.

The broken-hearted pain of loss.

You gently take my hand.

Hold me

While I scream, cry, yell out my hurt.

Yet

You love me so much that you take it all

And gently, quietly wait

Until exhaustion takes over and

All I have are great sighs, sobs and hiccups.

But in those moments, You just wait

You don’t push, You wait,

Then, when I am ready

You, Lord of heaven and earth

Pour in Yourself.

But prayer is also

Those moments of unbridled joy

Where I can tell You

So inadequately how much I love You.

Just to see the smile on Your face

That look of pure love

Is all I need.

Prayer is where we get to talk

About the everyday things of life, death and the universe.

The beauty of creation

The joy of new birth

The ache of hurt

The frustration of people

All can be poured out to You, Lord.

Conversation

Yes conversation.

Not one-sided

But for an audience of One.

You, Lord

You, Jesus.

Then there are my favourite conversations

Where I stumble to say Thank You.

To express a heart of gratitude.

Again, here I am running out of words.

But the hardest is the prayer where something is wrong!

Where, on behalf of someone else

I come to You

Ask You to move mountains,

Fix!

War on behalf of a person, situation

A church, a town, even a country.

My heart is full.

But again, in the middle of the rawness

With all its ugliness

You are there.

Interceding with me, for me.

Never leaving me alone.

And even though I don’t always understand why

You do.

When I can’t see the bigger picture

You do, always.

What is prayer?

A complicated, simple relationship

That will take me all my life to unravel.

But it is still the most beautiful of mysteries.

Thank you again, Jesus.

For helping me,

Yes me

To journey with You.

As my friend, my love

But always my Lord.

Thank You, Jesus

Talk very, very soon.