Early this morning, my day began. . . really early. Shortly after 3:45am Bianca began to stir at the end of the bed. She gurgled and rolled around before finally sitting up and shaking her head violently side to side. (And now I'm awake, I thought). I felt her walk across the edge of the bed toward me.
Stopping at my knees she began a low growl. . . (cue the eye roll). I tried to ignore her. I hoped she'd go back to sleep--I know that I wanted to.
She moved closer to me hip and continued the low growl. I opened my eyes just a fraction of the way to see her fully awake staring at me. Ears up and tail wagging. She needed to go out. In resignation I climbed out of bed and found my slippers. I sighed as I picked her up because I knew the worst was yet to come. . .
As we walked together into the living room, Luna stood up in her crate and began to whimper. She wanted to come to, and being 2-years-old meant that she was up for the morning.
After letting the ladies out, I closed the house up to find Luna laying next to Jen with her ears up and her tail wagging at me. What's that hold saying, 'move your feet, lose your seat???" I was beaten by a dog back to bed. Smiling I grabbed a blanket and headed for the couch. Some battles aren't worth the effort at 3:45am.
Stretching out on the couch I decided that I would spend some early morning time in prayer as I thought about what as to come later today. I recalled my mental list of things to do and began to work my way down the list while I listened to Bianca snore from the next room over.
My ethics professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary wrote these words in a journal that I am reading right now. He wrote:
"Prayer is conversation. John Calvin speaks of it as a conversation with God. or as Jurgen Moltmann says, 'God listens to his friends.' Then he adds: 'Friendship with God finds its preeminent expression in prayer.' And just as too much thinking stops a conversation with friends, too much theologizing stops our conversations with God."
Ron is right about that. . . At 3:45am my prayer with God was less formal that expected. It is less structured and more spontaneous. It was like talking to a friend, close friend. That prayer was a grouping of thoughts and a few sentence fragments as I worked my way back to sleep. But let's not pretend that my prayer this early morning was not transformational!
My entire day as had a different pacing to it because of those prayers. I forgot my laptop when I came to the church, but instead of being frustrated and going home to get it, I shrugged and retreated for the device.
Some crazy things can happen when we make prayer less formal with God and more intimate. I wonder what might happen for you when you and God converse next time?
Blessings
Rev. Derek
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