Thoughts On Prayer (January 7, 2011)

I’m not certain that there is an official category for me, but I’m “one of those” people who find it easier to sing my prayers than to speak them, or write them, or silently think them. Like I said, there may not be a category for that. For years I’ve tried to say my prayers before bed, and I fall asleep. Or I’ll try to pray in the shower or on the car ride to work, but the worries of the day pull my mind away (you’d think they might help me focus, but no). I’m not much of a morning person (coffee ruins me…) so waking up early to pray seems like a discipline I don’t really want to adapt.

My Dad and I had a good relationship but unfortunately, neither one of us were big talkers. When I went to college, he wrote me a letter. I had never heard him say some of the things that he was able to write in that letter. I responded with one of my own. It opened up an incredible avenue of communication that I never had with my Dad. We could both write things in those letters that we couldn’t say verbally. Because of those letters, there was nothing left unsaid between us before he passed away. For me, those exchanges were life-changing. In similar fashion, discovering the avenue of prayer that works for me has had a monumental impact.

I figure that I’ve been old enough to pray and to understand the concept for a solid 20 years give or take. We’ll call it 20 years. I discovered that singing my prayers is how I communicate best with God. Sadly, I didn’t discover that until about 5 years ago. Based on that, I’ve spend 15(give or take) years failing at praying.

Oh dear dear dear;  Collin, you can’t actually fail at praying.

I disagree.

 I think the only way to fail at praying is to give up on trying. 

I’m sure that I prayed with my mom before bed as a child and I’m sure that I prayed before the big high school soccer game, but I know that I never developed a consistent pattern of prayer. In that way, I feel like I dropped the ball (I played goalie, we lost in the state finals my junior and senior year but it’s ok, I don’t have nightmares about it to this day…). Back to prayer. I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to find out what works. Maybe I just got bored with reciting a laundry list of items to God. Maybe I thought that enough other people were praying that I didn’t have to. Maybe I got caught up in trying to show God that I could pray properly and use awesome Christian jargon to impress Him.

Sometimes we get caught up trying to make sure God hears our prayers or is impressed with them because we say all the right things. If you think about it, God Almighty, the Creator of the Universe isn’t going to be impressed by what vocabulary you use or exactly how you pray, and we don’t have to try to impress him. He’s already crazy about us.

I’m grateful that I found my avenue of prayer. I challenge you to do the same.


Just remember,

God Almighty is crazy about you.