Eat less.  Pray more.  Love abundantly.

So what does it mean to pray more?  Is it quantity or quality?  Is it conversation or convention?

I was raised Catholic.  Praying was highly structured and often involved a rosary and only occurred during Mass.

In college I experimented.   Most kids try sex, drugs and rock n’ roll.  Me?  I tried Jesus.  I joined the most charismatic of charismatic, Protestant, college house church.  Prayer was a sport, often with full contact, oil and yelling.

Now we are Methodist, sorta.

One of the core tenets of this journey is to pray more.  What does that really mean?

Should I rise before the sun (and my children) and pray quietly on the carpet before the birds sing?

Should I sleep with my bible in hand?

Or should I pray in the middle of the everyday grind?  Recently, I was struggling with thoughts of rejection from a friendship gone wrong.  I was cleaning a fixture at work and literally said aloud, “I evict you!”.  A customer looked at me and ran to the register.  This level of ‘more’ could be a little too much.

I have been praying more.  However, lately it’s a pleading, cajoling, complaining and, frankly, bitching.  I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.  And sometimes in prayer how I really feel, the unvarnished, uncensored, and the very unreligious me comes out.

So I have decided to take a slightly blended tactic.  Structure plus substance.

First, the structure.  There are two prayer books I have highlighted, underlined and sticky-noted.  They are full of scriptures.  I figure if I agree with what God already says, then He will agree with me on the expected outcomes.

Second, substance.  Psalm 51:17 says, “My sacrifice, indeed the acceptable sacrifice, to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”  The Amplified defines a contrite heart as one broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent.  My brokenness, when offered honestly and unvarnished in prayer, is a sacrifice God cannot deny.

Third, I have been sacrificing more time.  Been trying to put prayer first, before anything else.  It’s a discipline I have coveted in other people, and have yet to cultivate as much as I would like in my own life.

Finally, part of praying paradoxically also means praying less.  Praying less for myself and more for others.  Today I prayed for two of my friends.  I put them before me.  In the midst of my brokenness I turned my vision towards Heaven for someone else.  It was refreshing and empowering.