Into the Unknown
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I can’t tell you how many times I rewrote this article. Starting this blog has been more intimidating than I imagined. I initially thought, “This will be relatively easy – I write bulletin articles every week for my parish, which have, for the most part, been positively received. A blog is pretty much the same thing.”
This is one of the very few times that I’ve just started something that wasn’t kinda thrown into my lap. I work as a full-time youth and young adult ministry coordinator, but that came from first being a volunteer. I am married with kids, but that seemed to naturally come about from meeting and then dating and so on. But starting a blog is something that’s been on my mind (heart?) to for awhile, so I did…
And then I sat there. Thinking. What’s my first blog going to be about? Who’s my intended audience? How long should my post be?
And then I sat there. Writing. And rewriting. Just to let you know, I didn’t put this much effort or redrafting into any of my school papers or parish bulletin articles, so, you’re welcome.
And then I sat there. Doubting. Wondering.Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it sound good?
Basically I did a lot of sitting around. Thankfully I don’t have a fitness tracker buzzing me to move every hour (although I plan on getting one because, well, this just isn’t healthy).
I wasn’t sure if what I was writing was going to come across as intriguing or entertaining – something that would make people want to come back and read more. But I couldn’t think of the perfect person or persons to turn to to give me advice. I was intimidated by the thought of someone saying it’s crap or I shouldn’t be doing this.
Eventually, I came across this quote
Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom for the future.
Proverbs 19:20
Thanks God (and Google).
I try to listen to God. Definitely not as hard as I should – it’s extremely challenging to sit in prayer and not get distracted. Fortunately, I think God knows that, and so He speaks to us through other ways (people, books (the Bible comes to mind), movies, random thoughts, etc.). Unfortunately, that makes it easier to ignore or misinterpret Him too.
So how do we ignore and misinterpret Him less? Through prayer. I know, mind blown, right? Pcccchhhhhhhhhh (that’s the sound I think my mouth is making when I make an exploding noise…just go with it).
What is mind blowing though is how easy and yet at the same time difficult it is to pray. Prayer doesn’t really take that much. Just time.
But Deepu, I don’t have time to pray!
You have time to read this, don’t you? Stop reading right now and go pray. Seriously. If you don’t read the rest of this post or any other of my posts in the future because you’ve decided to commit that time to prayer, I’d consider that a huge success.
If you’re still reading, I hope it’s only because you’ve either already prayed, your prayer life is legit, or you stopped, prayed, realized you had more time, and continued to read. Okay, on with the show.
So prayer takes time. It takes other things as well if you want to get fancy about it, but you first have to make time.
There’s a question that believers might ask you if they know you’re a believer too: “Did you pray about it?” I both hate and love this question. I hate it because it’s such a cop out response when you’re looking for advice or sharing with someone a hard decision you have to make. But I love it because it reminds me that I’m like Jon Snow and know nothing, and thankfully God knows everything.
So start praying more. Even if you think your prayer life is legit, give a little more time. Or pray harder – so often I go into prayer time, but I get unfocused, or my heart’s not totally into it. Know God better, so that when you are seeking advice from others, you’ll better be able to know if it’s good or not – if it’s of God or not – and then accept it or not. We don’t know the future. But God does. And His future for us is way better than anything we could plan or hope for.
It is a good start trying to help people to get into the habit of praying. Spending some time with your God is like spending quality time with your own children. Call Him Dad and start a conversation, it is fun and rewarding May God bless you and good luck.
I stopped, prayed, then kept reading. #win1