Thoughts On Prayer I

Prayer – An Ancient Way To Mental Fitness

There are a few human behaviours that are spread across the world and across cultures and across time. Maybe more than a few. I’m sure there are some exceptions ,but for the most part humans that have been living in groups since there have been humans have participated in these activities, like games, sports, and gossip. One that all our cultures have shared as well is prayer.

My approach to prayer has changed. I became jaded towards praying because I saw it as a of ridiculous and effected display of piety by some. It was there direct line to Santa Claus-like God that would grant them magic wishes. Then my ideas about God changed, or rather I changed around the idea of God. And with this change also came my change towards prayer.

I remember praying as a child in church, both quietly to myself and in the corporate prayers of the service. I didn’t understand all of the prayers we said together as a group, ad it seemed like we were saying some pretty silly things. And when I was by myself I just sat with my eyes tightly shut and listened for God, as if a voice, like Charlton Heston or James Earl Jones, would boom in my head. All I heard was the sound of everything around me, the people shifting in their pews, a cough and the scuffle of feet, and the over-hanging velvet silence of a large stone church.

I was always disappointed to say the least. When I came back to church as an adult I discovered something else altogether different.

My reasons for returning to regular corporate worship are enough for another entry, so I’ll skip ahead to becoming a regular member. At that time in my life I was desperate to find a place of peace and inner calm within myself. But I’m getting a little off topic…

If we go to the effort of physical exercise to improve our physical fitness, shouldn’t we also be employing mental exercise to improve our mental fitness? And if we should have regular physical exercise, shouldn’t we have regular mental exercise?

I think we should. And just as we have specific exercise for specific muscles, we need specific exercises for our minds. Some for developing our intellect. Some for developing our focus. And some to develop our ethics.

In developing our ethics I think we need to do more than just logically puzzle out a particular issue. We need to perform regular rituals to refocus and remind ourselves of what we value as important. I think prayer is an important part of mental health.

What are you doing with prayer, either personal or group (corporate)? To be continued…