Recently in Prayer Category

The hardest people that I encounter in my daily life that are hard for pray for aren't people who've done horrible things. Murders, thieves, and other criminals, I figure they must have had a hard life in some way, whether it be in their childhood, some psychological issue or whatnot, that led their life on that path. They are guilty of a crime, no doubt, but I know they need my prayers and I offer them without restraint. (Of course, every so often there is a particularly horrible headline-grabbing offense that challenges me on this, but I digress.)

No, the hardest people for me to pray for are those in the customer service industry, in some form, and who do not follow through on their promises in whatever way. As you may know, I recently found myself in a position where I had to purchase a replacement vehicle and I found a nice little Nissan Versa that met my requirements in both feature and price.

Today, I wanted to take it in for its first oil change. I know that I don't have to take it to the dealership, but I like the idea of a long-term provider-client relationship and so I default to them after purchasing a new car. Since I found myself in Wichita Falls, I wanted to take it to Nissan of Wichita Falls, the dealer.

Knowing it was the day after Christmas, I half-suspected they would be closed for the holiday since folks in Wichita Falls still operate on the slower pace not found anymore in cities like Houston or Austin. I drive into the lot and I find their service garage doors open! I'm excited as my master plan to get the car nicely washed, filled with gas and oil changed was falling into place. I drive in, turn off the car and am met by a service department director-looking person.

The individual asked me what I needed and I told him a simple oil change. He replied that he didn't have anyone in the shop who could do an oil change and suggested that I return later.

I visit an establishment in the middle of the day that is open which provides car maintenance and repair services, one of the most basic of those services is the oil change and am told that no one in the shop can perform the service. I must wait for someone to arrive to work that can do the oil change.

For me and my sensibilities, I can't understand this and I can't figure out a series of events that would lead a business to be unable to deliver a most basic function of their business. For this reason alone, it merits my prayer for both them and for my own understanding, but it is the most difficult for me to bring in prayer.

I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.

2 Timothy 4:7

Training to run a marathon is not unlike our training efforts towards our eternal reward in heaven. Each Saturday morning, despite it being my day off of work and there is nothing that I must do, I wake up at 6:30 am to head to the corner of Riverside and South Congress to join with a number of other folks to run.

The first few weeks, we ran little. Two miles the first couple of weeks, then three miles, then a huge jump to five miles. The first week, running two miles, was very difficult, much more than it should have been. I had boast to my friends that I ran cross country in high school and while I was not great at it, I could run three miles a day without a problem.

In addition to that, on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday after work, I go home, change into running clothes and hit the trails, sidewalks or whatever surface I'm going to run on that day. By the time I arrive back home, shower, change into something comfortable, it is already 7:30 or 8 p.m.

At first, this was both hard and fun. Once I walked in the door to my apartment after work, I would jump into my running clothes and sprint to the door. Alas, in the time August, my motiviation has lacked some recently.

Now, last Saturday, we ran 13.4 miles. My finance and I had to cut it short from the planned 15.5 miles because we had appointments all day for wedding vendors, but we did not cut it short because we couldn't do it. We now think of a five mile run as "short".

At the same however, the idea of running tonight, tomorrow night or 18 or 21 miles in the upcoming Saturdays is now the last thing I want to do. I'll do it anyhow, but it is not the top thing of my list.

How is this like heaven and our "training" for it?

Prayer and good words should be key to our training. Developing and enacting a solid prayer routine isn't easy. Time and patience is needed to develop an attitude and habit of prayer. For example, someone who has not spent any dedicated time in prayer probably shouldn't attempt to start praying every hour of the Liturgy of the Hours with a rosary between Evening Prayer and Night Prayer. If they made it through a day, they wouldn't make it through too many more.

We have to always push ourselves to the next step though. The training might start with spending a few minutes in silence, reflecting upon the day. Maybe next, we'll do that and read a parable of the Gospel each night. Early on, we might add a spiritual director to be our coach. Over time, as we become more comfortable with the level of prayer and the energy it takes, we can step up to our next desired level. If we set ourselves to this goal, soon enough, we'll find ourselves praying each morning, noon and night complete with daily Mass.

With prayer too, we will find ourselves in moments like I am today with running. Despite that early on exercising our spiritual side and nurturing our desire to explore our relationship with God might have been a little exciting, now it might just seem like a drag. It might feel like that, but we can't let that dictate our actions. Just like running, once you get out there and stretch your legs, you'd be glad you did.

Heaven is the marathon for which we all strive. Unlike the 26 miles of a running marathon that we can lay out on a course and know the exact route, this marathon route is only known to God and in the inner most depths of our heart. We all must set our sights on finishing the marathon, but we have to train ourselves to be able to find the course, run it well and in the end, keep the faith.

At 7:15 am, I will be running 15km as part of the marathon training program that I'm in. In February, I will be running in the AT&T Austin Marathon and since I've had never ran more than three miles in my life, I started training.

As I type, the last thing I want to do is wake up and be running at 7:15 am. I'm going to do it, because I know that if I don't, I am only hurting myself in light of my long term goal—running a marathon. Prayer, in many cases, is the same way. When I wake in the morning, many days I simply do not want to take the time to pray. During the day, I often avoid daily Mass because I just don't want to. At night, I think about Evening or Night Prayer but more often than not it seems, I opt to go to sleep instead.

Aren't we just hurting ourselves, in light of our long term goal of eternal salvation, when we fail to pray? Whether it be in times of good health and happiness or when we're sure that everyone and everything is out to get us, shouldn't we pray? Prayer is training for the marathon of heaven. How can we be prepared to be in the total presence of God if we can't spend a few moments alone with Him?

And so, we should pray. Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary, a simple Our Father, silence, free-flowing thoughts. Whatever the form, whatever the time, the important part is to actually do it.