One of my congregations tried hiring teen-age boys to clean the sanctuary and fellowship hall each week. None of them lasted six months. They complained to me that it was boring. Every Saturday they had to do the same thing. Forget about it! I told them that’s the way life is, the same thing over and over again. Some things you’ll be doing again and again for the next fifty, sixty, or seventy years. Isn’t that the truth. I think about that every morning when I do my exercises with weights to strengthen my torn rotator cuffs. It’s either that or pain and surgery.

This speaks to prayer as well. I found this in Ronald Rolheiser’s little book Prayer: Our Deepest Longing. “Too often we are left with the impression that all prayer should be high celebration, upbeat, with high energy. . . . No wonder we often lack the energy to pray and want to avoid church services! The solution is not so much new prayer forms and more variety, but rhythm, routine, and established ritual. . . . What’s needed is a clearly delineated prayer form that does not demand of you an energy you cannot muster on a given day.”

Rolheiser recommends one form of praying that consists of siting comfortable for at least fifteen minutes, reading a short passage of scripture or spiritual writing, closing the eyes or focusing on a candle flame or icon, and maybe silently repeating a word like “Jesus.” And that’s it. That’s much like the centering prayer I’ve been doing for 26 years. Try it.

Read Ephesians 6:18 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne