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| Warren Dunes State Park, Michigan |
This life began in 1977 when I forced myself to get away to a lonely place and pray, a half hour a day. I chose to pray, which means I acted on it. I prayed.
The choice to pray and stay with it has morphed into DNA-praying. The choice to pray has become praying. If there is a choice now it would be to choose not to pray. This would be hard to do, since I am someone who cannot not-pray. I am a praying person, which means I am a person who would find it hard to not pray.
Henri Nouwen writes: "Discipline means that something very specific and concrete needs to be done to create the context in which a life of uninterrupted prayer can develop." (Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life, 91)
A long time ago I chose to pray for a half hour a day. I chose to do my praying in the piano room of our house in East Lansing. I chose to accompany my praying times with Scripture meditation. I chose to keep a spiritual journal and write down what God was saying to me and doing in me. I began to experience God meeting with me, speaking to me, strengthening me, guiding me, healing me. A life of uninterrupted praying began to develop. And I woke up today praying.