Get Personal

So for the past month at almost every gathering I've been to, the theme or idea of personal prayer has become part of the conversation, if not the main topic. I'm gonna take it as inspiration from the Holy Spirit that I should write something about it (not because I'm past my deadline and need something to write about!).
This has been something that I've known is important since I got into youth ministry over a decade ago but that truly came to life at the recent John Bosco conference. (If you are getting sick of hearing about this conference then tough toockies, it was a great conference!) I'm going to blame Jim Beckman for the resurgence of this particular topic in my life. You see, Jim broke through my own excuses with regards to personal prayer. My biggest excuse was that with 4 kids and working in ministry I was busy, so couldn't I make the work that I do and take the time I spend in the car as my personal prayer. Turns out the answer is NO!
I'm going to skip all of the reasons why and just point you to Jim's book “God Help Me” for all of that.
What I do want to talk about is my personal experience of actually practicing what I preach for the past month. I'm still a newbie to this level of consistent daily prayer so I've yet to see everything that God will pour out in my life, but I have to say I'm pretty excited so far!
I'll start by saying that I didn't make any ground breaking changes; I simply followed Jims advice and remain consistent and honest. Up to this point in my prayer life I had only worked in two early morning prayer hours each week on separate days. I needed to get more consistent, I needed something that I could commit to each day of the week. What I added was time reading Scripture, silence, praying the office of readings and looking over the “In Brief” sections in the Catechism. All in all I spend 30 minutes to an hour each day of the week in prayer.
Not every time in prayer looks the same. I don't set a specific, rigid “to do list” for my prayer, but I am consistent about the time that I commit. If I feel pulled to spend more time on a particular devotion I do so, even if I means I may not get to each component.
The fruit of this consistent, honest time with God each day is unmistakeable to me (and hopefully to others around me as well). The most poignant example of this was on our recent “Staff Days of Prayer” retreat. It is just a time for us to spend time in prayer as a staff over the upcoming year etc... We spent a large chunk of time just in silence with Christ. What I experienced that was so different than other retreats was that it wasn't an “emergency” or “healing” type of experience for me. Instead of walking into the retreat drained and in need of a spiritual boost, I walked in fairly healthy.
Looking at this through the analogy of God as our divine physician, what do you do when you walk into the doctor fairly healthy? You just chat, hang out, rest. I'm sorry but that is pretty darn cool. Instead of being brought to God on a gurney in need of resuscitation, I was able to walk in of my own accord and just abide in his presence. Don't get me wrong, this was through no power of my own, but by my being consistent and honest with God, I was uniquely disposed to receive what it was that he had to give me. EVERY DAY! This lead to this entirely unique experience on retreat for me.
There are some of you out there wishing you were near me so you could slap me and say “Duh!” But there are others out there that still haven't made daily prayer a part of your life. All I have to say to you is “Why not?” You have a personal God that Loves you, and wants to spend time with you. DO IT!