Roundabout Thoughts on Prayer

Mood: contemplative, grateful for the opportunity to be in Germany
What I'm Reading: Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha (read it a few years ago, but since the movie came out thought I would hit it again. The clean, elegant writing style appeals to me)

After church today I asked someone how their week had been going. They spent 30+ min. answering (which was great). It was interesting to note that an event they pointed out as having been the most encouraging point of their week was the same event that another friend had earlier told me was something of a low point in their week. They came in and had a chance to compare notes on it later, and it was interesting to balance the two perspectives.

Having been so open with their own life, when the friend asked me to share how my life was going I decided that it was permissable to jump right in. When I made my summation statement about 20 min. later, I realized that I had probably captured a small slice of my mood (the ballpark idea being an uncertainty of how to proceed with several decisions confronting me) and communicated it reasonably well. The illustrations I used, however, were all things that I'm pretty sure are causing me little or no frustration and uncertainty at all. They have simply become convenient vehicles for discussing in abstract (albeit with concrete examples of a sort) challenges that have no other appropriate forum at the moment.

This conclusion led me to an hour of pondering on the way home today. Here are the thoughts that I came up with:

I need to talk to God more about what I'm thinking. Somewhere between praise and supplication I seem to have lost the element of conversation lately. It is the one forum where no one will be offended (God has heard it all and never tells a secret :) and solutions can be sought after and found even when you yourself have no idea where to begin (in fact, it often seems that ''nowhere'' is the place God finds it most opportune for us to start at).

The second thought is related to the first. I need to find opportunities to pray with others. In the States I rarely left a conversation with a Christian friend without having prayed with them. This was no mere formality. It was a key ingredient in the cement of our relationship. It helped us to know God and one another better. Somehow, I need to find culturally appropriate ways to make this a part of my relationships here as well.

Finally, repeat after me: ''God has everything under control.'' You can take your stiff and unyielding fingers off of the wheel, it is rusty and broken anyways!