Prayer in Action

by Brandon Jubar

When we say the word "prayer", images of darkened rooms, flickering candles, and quiet reflection usually pop into most peoples' minds. But prayer is about communication with God, and communication can take many forms. For some people, quieting the ruckus in their minds is much more easily accomplished not through stillness, but through motion.

Flex Those Prayer Muscles

For thousands of years, many Asian cultures have practiced meditation in motion. One such art is Tai Chi. Though a martial art, it is also an excellent way to quiet the mind, center the body, and open your heart to the Lord. The flowing sequences of memorized movements allows one to expend nervous energy and anxiety, and the repetition acts like white noise, helping block out the thoughts that can interfere with prayer.

Likewise, regular exercise can be used in this fashion. Putting your body through its paces of familiar exercises can help raise your overall energy, improve your focus, and make it far easier to listen for what the Lord has to say. It's as if the exertion of one's physical being occupies the body so completely that the mind is left to other things.

Whatever form of exercise you choose, whether it be weight-training, running, martial arts or anything in between, it can be combined with prayer to create a good spiritual workout as well. Exercising the body and the soul -- the ultimate in cross training!

Repetitive Work

Another excellent way to calm and center the mind is to do some repetitive chore or work. Something as mundane as mowing the lawn can be turned into personal time with the Lord. The drone of the mower blocks out most outside stimuli, while the repetitive physical exertion occupies the body and frees the mind for other things.

Many people who perform repetitive tasks on their jobs could use some of their time to get in touch with God. Especially in factories, the ambient noise covers up most outside distractions. As long as a repetitive task can be performed safely without requiring the person's full attention, it can feel almost private when you pray in such an environment.

All of the work that people do is valuable, in some regard, to our society and our world. Whether we are performing menial chores or complex tasks requiring exemplary skills and specialized training, we should, at the very least, do them to the best of our abilities. We should perform our work as though the work itself is a prayer. And we should do so in order to glorify God. Thus, even those things that require our undivided attention can be lifted up to the Lord as a form of prayer and thanksgiving.

Regular Routines Work Too!

When the alarm goes off in the morning, my arm shoots out from under the covers and my fingers deftly tap the snooze button. This action doesn't require that I be awake, and I am often oblivious to the fact that it has occurred. Eventually the alarm goes off enough times to rouse me from my slumber, and I very literally roll out of bed.

What happens next is unclear, because I am still half asleep. The motions are exactly the same every morning, requiring almost no thought on my part. By the time I slip into our closet to choose my clothes for the day, I am wide-awake and have had time to reflect on things, plan my day, and even pray a bit.

Many creativity experts recommend that you break up your routines to stimulate your mind. Do things in a different order some morning. Take a different route to work. Shake things up and see what ideas come out of it.

We all develop routines, and we slip into them easily because we like the comfort brought on by familiarity. You can try changing your routine and see what happens, or you can do something with your mind while your body goes through its motions. When your body is on autopilot, that is the perfect time to connect with the Lord. Once again, the outside world does not require your conscious attention, so you are free to focus on communicating with God.

So you see, prayer does not have to be relegated to a dark, still, quiet place. Prayer does not have to be done in private by the flickering of a candle's flame. Prayer can be active, and it can be out and about. Prayer is about communicating with our God, and there is more than one way to communicate. So get off your contemplative duff and hit that treadmill. Your soul could use the exercise!

Life Applications:

What do you think about when you exercise?
How can you incorporate prayer into the work you do?
What routines do you have? Could they be used to improve your prayer life?

Copyright 2002 by Brandon Jubar
All rights reserved.