I get asked a lot about prayer.

What is it?

How do you do it?

How can I get better at it?

Is there a right way?

Can I take a class on it?

Isn't it interesting that something so seemingly simple as lifting up your thoughts, hopes, cares and concerns to the God who loves you is something we make so complicated?

I think our problem isn't that we don't know what prayer really is.

I think the deeper issue is perhaps that God doesn't do what we "ask" (tell?) God to do and so we want a  strategy. A true blue plan that works.

Well, there is no plan. There is no strategy, no magic, no program, no guarantee ...

I love how professor Wesley Hill defines prayer:

God is 'your Father,' and He already is disposed favorably toward you ... [So] go find a quiet place where you can relax ...

Unclench your fists.

Breathe deeply.

Let your heart rate decrease.

Know that you are already bathed in the Father's love, and ask simply for what you need, in the assurance that the One to whom you're speaking is already cupping His ear in your direction. 

That's what prayer should be.

No class needed for that, friends.

Just a little time.

A little faith.

A little honesty with the  One who is already "cupping His ear in your direction."