What I've Learned from 365 Days of Prayer

If there is one book that God has used to stir my spiritual life, it's Bill Hybels' Too Busy Not to Pray.  I read this just over a year ago and began an adventure of daily prayer that, this past week, marked 365 continuous days of devotions.

Hard to believe!

I've been a Christian for a long time but in only two periods of my life did prayer become real for me.  First, when I was in college, my prayer life was quite vibrant and alive.  Now as a result of reading Hybels' book, I'm thankful that I've hit another patch of spiritual consistency.

God gets the credit.

My previous post documented what I learned from only three weeks of prayer.  Little did I know that we would be here, one year later to report on this "spiritual experiment".  Here are my findings:

• Simple is good. I've used the ACTS method of prayer and its strength lies in the simple approach to prayer: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.


• The journal is key.  By writing down my prayers and complimenting them with verbal prayers, prayer has become more real for me.  I use a simple .99$ notebook from the grocery store.


• Flexibility is important. As life has "seasons" when some things work and some things don't, so too does prayer have its moments.  I've had to change up my Scripture reading, times of day and length of journaling depending on how things were going.


• There is no perfect moment. If you wait for the perfect moment to pray, it won't happen.  It will never be totally quiet and you will never hit an hour in the day when you feel perfectly ready for prayer.  The key as Nike coined years ago, just do it.


• Prayer is about relationship and communication.  In the beginning, my devotions were something that I wanted to test out.  Then, it became something that I had to work at.  Now, I can't imagine not having a daily time of prayer.  My relationship with God needs good communication and by starting the day with prayer, I'm placing Him first on my list.


• Prayer is about sabbath. Jesus was very serious about taking time to slow down.  Daily prayer peels off a little bit of sabbath time and inserts it in days other than the sabbath.

Wherever you are in your spiritual life, it's never too late to begin a new season of prayer.  Anyone can do it, it costs nothing and there may be no better use of your time. What are you waiting for?

Here's to another 365 days!  I'd love to know what's working in your devotional life so that prayer is real and alive for you...

Which is Better: 5 Minutes or 5 Days of Solitude?

When was the last time that you took 20 minutes alone?

Too often we think that you have to go off to a monastery and spend a week with monks in robes.  We get this concept from movies. Celebrity goes off to find himself.  Returns a changed man.  Think 7 Years in Tibet.

Kathleen Norris, one of my favorite authors, made hanging out with monks a contact sport.

It's not the amount of time that you take to get away.  It's not about the people with whom you get away.  It doesn't matter if you come back feeling different.

It's enough simply to withdraw.

When we withdraw (another word for 'taking sabbath'), we pull back and actually give God a chance.  A chance to whisper something new.  An opening to get us to think about our day- its ups and downs.

Without withdrawing on a regular basis, our "faith system" doesn't get the full stretch that it deserves.  It's like owning a Porsche but never venturing into the far left lane.

Withdrawing is so right on so many levels.

It's enough simply to withdraw.

How to Rescue Your Vacation Before It's Too Late

Did you know that most Americans don't use up all of their vacation days?  If you don't believe me, read about it here.

I try to take two vacations each summer, one in early summer as a bit of a release from the pressure of the end of the year.  Then, in early August, I like to take another week where I can just be with my family and mentally prep for the year ahead.

Unfortunately, this week (which is my 2nd week) has been a huge disappointment.  I've let my job and its various stresses get the best of me.  My wife even said earlier today, "Seems like you're pretty focused on work this week, even though you're supposed to be on vacation."

Sad but true.

I don't wear this like a badge of honor like some people you meet.  You know, the folks at cocktail hours who spout off about how important they are and how "work would never allow me to get away", etc.

My problem is me.  I've allowed my self to fall into a couple of work-related traps that you can avoid if you really want to enjoy your time off.  If you can learn from my mistakes, all the better.

The pitfall of not cleaning up before your vacation. GTD founder David Allen says this about the feeling you get prior to vacation, "Isn't it interesting that people feel best about themselves right before they go on vacation? They've cleared up all of their to-do piles, closed up transactions, renewed old promises with themselves. My most basic suggestion is that people should do that more than just once a year."

I really didn't clean things up before I left for vacation.  It didn't feel tidy and several days later, I don't feel great.  My inbox was full and I had too many loose ends to tend to.  Big mistake.  It's totally worth the time and energy to address messy details before vacation (rather than during your time on the beach with the ones you love; BlackBerry smartphones weren't made to be used in tropical locations!)

The pitfall of being overly reachable during your vacation. My closest team members know how to reach me when things get hot (i.e. an emergency).  I've unfortunately been dealing with phone calls and crisis emails all week.  Even though I use a vacation auto-responder and my voicemail message tells folks that I'm away, my lack of discipline has made me reachable to too many folks.  While I've been writing this post, two calls have come in which needed some of my attention.  Ugh!

The pitfall of working while on vacation. Does this one really need an explanation?

So with all of this said, a vacation can still be rescued from the three pitfalls we discussed.  I'm going to turn off my phone, go back to a few activities that anchor me (journaling, blogging, fishing) and recommit to my family in the days that I have left.

I feel better already.

 

The Hardest Thing to Stop

Most of us don't have destructive behaviors.  We have more sneaky habits that we simply don't know how to break.  Carol Kinsey Goman from Forbes has a nice post on what may be the most sinister of all American skillsets.

Multitasking.

As we are reminded again and again, multitasking simply doesn't work.  The human brain just can't focus on two things at once.  I'm wondering about the moments in the next week where you (me too!) could avoid doing two things at the  same time.  I'm guilty of driving and listening to podcasts at the same time. No harm, no foul there.  Still, I'm going to try and do one or the other.  I imagine seeing some homes on the side of the road that I never saw before.  Or, I might be more aware of another driver whose facial expression is sad or lonesome.

During these moments, when you can slow down and focus only on one thing at a time, Sabbath can increase.

Where Sabbath expands, God finds room to whisper to the farther corners of our lives.

A Permission Slip ... to Slow Down

The past two weeks in New Jersey (and in many other parts of the country) have been hot. Very hot.  So much so that we have started to feel like old timers, talking more about the weather than about anything else.

"Hot enough for ya?"

That classic line has become very popular in the St. Pierre house.  Even our four year old is a weather expert.  It's become a sport to check weather.com for daily updates.  Like a badge of honor, we brag to our friends about how close to 100 it is.  Just today I spoke with a friend who smiled and relayed a story of how his sandle melted on some sand at the beach as if to say, "real men brave the elements."

As we now wait for rain, and it seems like it will rain one of these days, I'm a bit sad.  You'd think that I would be happy, after all our lawns look like hell.  Strangely enough, the heat has taught me a crucial lesson.  A lesson about rest, about sabbath and about spiritual things.  The fact is, most of what we've done in the past two weeks has been downright restful.

We have read books.  Played board games.  Cooked healthy meals.  Took trips to the pool.  It's been spectacular and filled with moments of Sabbath.  It was as if we needed the heat to give us permission to slow down and just be.

Life is like that.  My friend Christine talks about a time when she was sick with a cold.  She "called in sick", read magazines and enjoyed hot tea- all day long.  "I loved it," she said as she explained how she needed a cold to give her permission to slow down.

That's all we need most of the time, permission.  Permission to take a break.  Permission to nap without guilt.  Permission to spend a bit longer cooking a meal when we would ordinarily rush.  Permission to linger in your prayer time.

Our culture is often about the work of taking permission away. You shouldn't take a break, work harder.  You shouldn't do one thing at a time when you could be multitasking.  You shouldn't enjoy a small home when everyone else is heading to larger four bedroom models.

Our faith tells us to counter all of this.  To swim against the stream and accept permission to live consciously right here and right now.

Which area of your life are you feeling as if permission is needed? Have you been beating yourself up because your waistline isn't perfect?  Forget about it.  Guilt-ridden because you didn't get the perfect gift for someone?  Please!

Go ahead and give yourself permission today to let God meet you right where you're at.  That might take place during supper or while you're going for a swim or even while you're waiting in traffic.

It's ok, you have permission.

Take Time to Pause

I just returned from the annual National Catholic Education Association convention in New Orleans.  It was a terrific event and the NCEA does a great job of bringing speakers, practitioners and vendors together for three solid days.

While I was there I purchased Terry Hershey's The Power of Pause from Loyola Press. Something about the title really caught my eye and I read it while on my two flights back to Jersey.

Hershey's point is simple enough- practicing Sabbath is important in and of itself.  Yes, it's a means to an end (deeper relationship with God) but it might also be of benefit on its own.

Pausing/Sabbath is important on any given day in that it...

• Renews your senses


• Anchors you in the ordinary


• Physically removes your stress


• Provides an opportunity to listen to God


• Slows you down


• Disconnects you from technology

Each of us can find a moment in our day to pause.  I call this a Quiet Time and I often fill it with some Scripture reading as well as a time to write in my journal. Mornings are best for me but I don't stress if it comes later in the day.  The key is to simply do it and not stress whether it's "good enough" or perfect.  Sort of like a runner, I just get out there and let it happen.  I don't wait for perfect conditions to have a Quiet Time.

I think that another of Hershey's points is that Pausing need not try to accomplish anything.  Don't try to get really, really good at your Quiet Time.  Don't try to become a Master Journaler.

Just pause and see what effects take place in you over time.

When was the last time that you had a week where Pausing was a regular feature?  Psalm 46: 10 provides a great starting point if you are hoping to add more Pause to your day:

Be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know.

Be still.

Be.