Conversation: an informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc., by spoken words; oral communication between persons; talk; colloquy.
These past couple of weeks have been filled to the brim with conversations! One-on-ones with campers and summer staff, all-staff convos, small group meetings, and unexpected phone calls that make my heart happy have been making their ways into my life lately. All this talking makes me feel so connected.
Sunday night I was chatting with a friend over the phone about the message he had heard at church that morning. Because of when I have to start my Sundays at camp I can't go to worship anywhere, so he was nice enough to fill me in. As we chatted he shared the worship and message with me. The pastor that morning had talked about prayer and how it is a very, very important element to our faith and our lives that should exist, but for many of us doesn't. I am one of those in the "many of us" category. I guess I just don't think about it much. It often times is hard for me to focus on being still long enough to really pray. And for this I feel guilty.
Sunday night I was chatting with a friend over the phone about the message he had heard at church that morning. Because of when I have to start my Sundays at camp I can't go to worship anywhere, so he was nice enough to fill me in. As we chatted he shared the worship and message with me. The pastor that morning had talked about prayer and how it is a very, very important element to our faith and our lives that should exist, but for many of us doesn't. I am one of those in the "many of us" category. I guess I just don't think about it much. It often times is hard for me to focus on being still long enough to really pray. And for this I feel guilty.
Something that my friend mentioned about the sermon was the fact that the pastor talked about prayer being a conversation between you and God. This got me thinking; a conversation usually has two participants. Both individuals take the time to talk, listen, respond, talk, listen, respond, talk, listen, respond, etc. This thought in particular is a bit humbling for me to think about because when I do pray, my "conversation" if you will, is often times one sided. It is pretty rare that I stop talking, stop filling my moments of stillness with day-to-day worries and ruckus, and actually stop to listen and respond to God talking to me.
Because of this realization, I have given myself a "prayer challenge": To talk. To listen. To respond.
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