Coming
The following suggestions may assist you as you make this movement across the threshhold and open your attention to God.
About Choosing a Place
We need help setting our feet on the path Which goes from the non-praying world in which we are habitually distracted and intimidated, into the praying world where we rediscover who we are truly are in the presence of God. “We never get past needing this help. We hunger and thirst for God, but our noblest appetites are debased by our own fears and lusts and the stamp the culture presses upon us.”
-Eugene Peterson, "Answering God"
Some places can have special meaning for us, and can help evoke our attention and presence for God—who is always present with us. Where were some of those “God places” for you?
When we are on the move, we tend to “lose our place” and may experience difficulty connecting to God in prayer. Other pilgrims of faith who experienced similar changes discovered ways to create place for prayer. Abram and Nathanael found shady trees to sit under (Genesis 18:1; John 1:45-49); Abram built a simple altar with stones (Genesis 12:8); Jacob chose a stone as a reminder of God’s presence and a place to pray (Genesis 28:11-18); Hagar prayed by a spring/well of water (Genesis 16:7-14); Daniel by an upstairs window (Daniel 6:10). Jesus withdrew to solitary places to pray (Luke 5:16).
Each one chose a place where they drew aside to be with God.
You may feel comfortable sitting in front of your computer—whether you are in your office, a room in your home, or in an airport or some other public space. If so, this web site on your screen can serve as a guide for prayer.
The content can also be downloaded if you desire more privacy and space in order to experience inner solitude and presence for God. Jesus offered the following guidance to his followers: “Whenever you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret” (Matthew 6:6).
Choosing a place to pray assists us on many levels. It may be a certain chair, or in front of a chosen window, but when we sit in that place our intent is to be open to God and to open our attention to God. It becomes a place of re-collecting or re-membering: bringing the fragmented and disjointed parts of our attention back together in God’s presence.
What else we introduce into that space can be those things that assist our being present for God: a candle, a stone, possibly a plant, a shell, or some other gift from God’s creation.
Helps to Assist in Crossing the Threshold
Breathing
As you come into the place of your choosing, sit, kneel, walk/jog, or lie comfortably. Take some deep, slow breaths, breathing in and out very slowly. Feel your body relaxing. As you continue to breathe in and out, allow your breathing out to be a movement of your letting go all that is blocking your awareness of God and your breathing in a receiving of all that is from God.
Lighting a candle
Light a candle in your prayer place. Sit in the quiet, allowing the stillness and the light of the candle to draw your attention into the presence of Jesus, Light of the world.
Music
Play some music that draws your attention across the thresh hold into God’s presence.
Body movement
Stand with your feet slightly apart and your arms outstretched on either side of Your body. Move your arms slowly until they are finally in front of you and your hands are touching. As you move your arms together in this way, allow them to symbolize the gathering of all the pieces and events of your life experience. As your hands come together, offer all the pieces and events to God. Be still.
Visualizing a place where Jesus prayed
See yourself walking away from your daily surroundings and into the fields and hills where Jesus went to pray. Jesus is waiting for you there. As you come into his presence, notice what you bring with you. Whatever you bring may be a starting point for your dialogue with Jesus. Or you may choose to lay down what you bring. Whatever we bring, be sure that Jesus meets us where we are, not where we wish we could be.
Contemplating creation
Either outside, or through a window, gaze at what God has made:
- The birds
- Flowers
- A tree
- The sky
- Sun, moon, stars
- Rivers and lakes, seas
- An insect, an animal
- Fish and reptiles
- Fields on the farm
- Hills, mountains, valleys
- A child at play
- A plant
- A shell
- A favorite stone
- The garden . . .
