Inkling

When and how do you pray? The truth is we can be as theoretical as we want about prayer, but it boils down to the when and how. For so many of us this is where our spiritual journeys get tripped up. We know it’s a good idea, but we don’t carry through with the execution.

I pray best in my journal. It’s always been the case. When I am writing I am focusing on what I want to say to God and I can scribble what I perceive God saying to me. The psalmists, in a real sense, were journal-ists. They thoughtfully reflected upon what their hearts had to say and then they wrote it.

When and how do you pray? Do you have an answer you’re happy with?

Lewis gets practical about this question in Letters to Malcolm. First, he says, don’t try it at bed-time. When we are “off to sleep” is the worst time to bring your heart to God. “I’d rather pray sitting in a crowded train than put it off till midnight when one reaches a hotel bedroom with aching head and dry throat and one’s mind partly in a stupor and partly in a whirl.” Don’t try it in church either, he suggests – you’re bound to be interrupted by the organist practicing or the cleaning woman cleaning. What one thing he strongly advocates is kneeling – “the body ought to pray as well as the soul.”

I’m not sure there’s a universal answer to these things. The point is, what’s your answer?