Other Spiritual Insights (Part 3)

"Prayer is huge part of spiritual formation, having that direct relationship with God. That is such a huge deal." (Ginormous, really.)

"If you do not believe the gospel, how then is it possible to pursue a relationship with Christ and grow closer to him? It is like getting married to a woman that you do not believe exists. If you do not believe she exists, then why should you feel the need to spend time with her?"
(Or better yet, HOW did you marry her?)

"Lives of spiritual formation are characterized by thoughts becoming action and action becoming change." (Does change become dollars?)

"The person's role, simply put, is to follow Jesus. This is not to say that we are to follow him in physical direction (obviously, since he not on earth at that moment)..." (Glad you clarified. I was getting confused...)

Only Passionately Curious

Albert Eistein is quoted to have said, "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious."

Only passionately curious. 

Many of us scoff when we read such a statement. After all, if a little curiosity and some passion is all it took to make world-changing scientific discoveries, then wouldn't there be a lot more Einsteins? Perhaps.

Or perhaps not.

Lord, Teach Me to Pray

My prayer life—to put it lightly—is fairly dismal sometimes. I've always seen prayer as some ambiguous religious ritual that was required of me, by God, so I could "hear from him." As a child, I found myself constantly confused that I never "heard God's voice" and when I told my mother that I did not think you could hear God, she would always seem concerned about my lack of supplicatory understanding. Surely, I was missing something.

Yet even then, no one could really explain to me what the model prayer life looked like. I heard the following quote and could immediately relate. Maybe you will feel the same way.

"When it comes to prayer...we all struggle in different ways. Years ago, I sat down to think through some of my frustrations with prayer and perhaps some of these will describe you. I've said things like:

• I wrestle with prayer
• I struggle with prayer
• My prayer life is weak
• All my prayers sound the same
• I know I should pray more
• I don't know how to pray
• I fall asleep when I pray (How many of us can say, 'yes, I fall asleep when I pray!')