Connecting With God: Contemplative Prayer
It can be a surreal experience to live in a time that will go in history books. When everything that was “normal” about life changes. If you are like me, you are asking the question, “what is happening?” a lot. As I try and adjust, get on top of things, and figure out what all of this technology is about, I can find myself getting pretty swept away. I reach the end of the day and think, “how did I get here?” And then it’s time to do it all over again.
This is a time where being intentional is paramount. We must find ways to remember that our purpose is not simply to survive, but to live. Spiritual disciplines are a fantastic way to inject this purpose and intentionality into our lives. They always have been, but they are perhaps more vital now than ever. When we can carve out specific time and space to devote to God beautiful things happen.
So, I would like to offer you some launching points into spiritual practices. I hope these can help guide, point you in the right direction, or spark a new idea to lead you closer to God. We are going to begin by looking at prayer. Prayer is something we have likely engaged in before, but always something that leaves me feeling like I still haven’t fully plumbed its depths. Prayer is so rich, so diverse, and so wonderful a connection place with God. We will take a look at some different expressions of prayer- some might be familiar and some not- and I hope each of them can bring us to a place of intentionality and connection.
Let’s start with contemplative prayer. This is the practice of listening for God. Contemplative prayer is something you do in quiet and stillness; it is sitting, waiting, listening. This can be difficult for us to do. Firstly, it is scary to listen for God. What if I don’t hear anything? Does God not want to talk to me? Am I doing it wrong? Or, perhaps even scarier, what if I do hear something? Do I want to give up my plausible deniability for God’s voice in my life? Secondly, many of us are not good at being still and listening. That is not what we are trained to do; our culture pushes us to achieve, to be efficient- busyness is crammed down our throats. Let me give you some encouragement. This is not a practice for the elite, for the monks, that God will only speak to the worthy or the enlightened. In fact, I think God is constantly speaking to us. The issue is, sound has a speed, but it is too slow for us. We often move at least at Mach 3. Contemplative prayer is sitting still long enough for the words God has been hoping we hear to catch up. And that sometimes takes a while. If you broke the sound barrier a few years ago those words have some catching up to do. My own experience was hearing nothing, getting precious little out of this practice, for the first 200 hours I spent in it. But God is speaking. To you. God has words of comfort, of guidance, of love, of grace, of hope, of challenge.
So, I want to invite you into this practice. Choose a time right now- carve it out of your schedule- that you will spend 10 minutes in still, secluded, silent, listening prayer for the next 3 days. If you wish to engage more feel free, but it is totally normal for that to be about what you can handle at first. May you feel the freedom of sitting down, of waiting in stillness for God. May you be formed by the intentional act of prayer to be centered, focused, and calm. May you connect, and bask in the words of the one who loves you as no one else can.
Travis Roberts