On prayer

I've been reading Richard Rohr's Breathing Underwater for over a month, and for a book with only 147 pages, it's sure taken me a long time to get through it. Each sentence is almost physically chewable, not to mention circular, impactful, and applicable to my life. In the book Rohr parallels the Twelve Step program with spirituality - since that's what it was based on in the first place. But he digs in so deeply, I wonder if Bill Wilson (aka Bill W, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous), even knew how transformative those twelve steps could actually be.

Step ten requires me to improve my contact with God - which comes at a perfect time, as my walk rollercoasters over great hills at times, and currently I'm in a low valley. Of course, when anybody discusses contact with God, one of the first things that pops into mind is prayer. But read the step. Read it carefully.

We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood [God], praying only for knowledge of [God's] will for us and the power to carry that out.

As I read that over and over and over again, I got a hint that this is just how prayer should be. Instead of asking for this, that, and the rest, I need to ask for a simple communication line to be open so that I am open to hearing what His will is for me and how I should go about meeting his expectations for my life. Once that is established, this, that, and the rest may not matter.

God answers prayer. He provides all sorts of things, but until we can get our brains to unravel from our current way of thinking that God will be there to provide for us abundantly, He would go about his business, waiting patiently. It's our work on ourselves that he knows will either happen or not. He's a sneaky one, that God. Basically he wants us to pray to understand what HE wants for our lives and then for us to pray for it to happen.

I feel like this almost deserves an "LOL". Of COURSE it's going to happen! God has tricked us into praying for what HE wants! Haha! Answered prayers! I can attest that this works. I've struggled with acceptance of situations for my entire life. Take my divorce as a big one. I spent months praying for reconciliation, for my love for my husband to be restored, for him to concede to counseling - but those prayers went unanswered, like God was wearing a NOPE tee shirt. I was relentless. Then I started to change my prayers. I had been reading more and more about prayer and what the purpose of prayer was, and I started to pray things like if your will is and show me your will in this or what's next, Lord? And when my husband filed for divorce in May I finally felt the release - that God had said to me, It's okay, daughter. You have done what you thought was the right thing, but it is my job to protect your heart, and your work is done here. It's okay. I have plans for you.

Please do not misunderstand. I know it was never God's intention for my marriage to fall apart. It was never his intention for me to have an affair or get divorced. We all have free will, and I screwed up. Plain and simple. But last week when Scott started talking about step three and asking the Lord to take this mess and make it beautiful? I almost fell on the floor in happy tears because I feel so whole! God has worked a miracle in me! He's forgiven me and is now working on the next chapter of my life, and guess what! His will for my life will be completed because I pray for that to happen each day. I pray for his guidance in his next steps and for the means to carry out his plan. He has provided and will continue to do so as long as I align and open myself up to him. And that, my friends, is the key to step ten.

So my questions are this:

1. Is my daily prayer routine THAT easy? I simple prayer asking for guidance and for my eyes to be opened to His will? That's it? No prayers for friends and family?
2. How DO I pray for others? Ask Him to show THEM His will for them?
3. Why, when I think about this stuff and try to process it, as long as I don't think too hard or concentrate on it too long, I can sort of understand it, but if I dwell. It all goes away?

Feel free to comment on these questions. I'm interested in hearing what my readers are thinking and how we can learn from each other.

Namaste.