Last night was one of those serendipitous moments in life when a vast treasure is discovered bringing happiness and joy. The treasure? The Rangers were on Fox Sports Southwest again last night! A thrilling (if it is okay to say that about a Spring Training game) one-run game with the Mariners.
The real serendipity last night, though, was both of my girls wanted to sit in my lap and watch the game with me. Granted Tori's attention span for baseball is short...real short, but Trae sat glued to the game. We had practiced her swing yesterday after school and she was intent on watching how the big leaguers swing in order to help her.
The Rangers head toward the Metroplex on Thursday for a couple of final tune-ups with the Marlins on Friday and Saturday before beginning the season next Monday with the Boston Red Sox. Kevin Millwood for the Rangers. Curt Schilling for the Red Sox. Mack Brown throws out the first pitch. And Roger Clemens in attendance, courtesy of team owner Tom Hicks.
And I will be there! My first opening day game! I can't wait!
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"The 'open secret' of many 'Bible believing' churches is that a vanishingly small percentage of those talking about prayer...are actually doing what they are talking about. They have not been shown how to change their life as a whole, permeating it with appropriate disciplines, so that prayer...will be spiritually successful" (Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, 186).
I admitted to you yesterday that when it comes to the discipline of personal prayer, I find my greatest spiritual struggle. It's not that I fail to pray, it's just the belief that my prayer life is so much less than it could be.
Perhaps you feel that way as well. We hear and read about spiritual giants of the past who devoted countless hours to personal prayer and feel ourselves lacking in comparison.
Yet to pray is take part in one of the most awesome responsibilities and opportunities afforded to God's people. In prayer, we are participating in concert with God to determine the future! What separates many of my prayers from the great pray-ers in Scripture is their strong belief that their prayers could and would make an objective difference in their lives and in the world!
If nothing else, that realization challenges me to grow deeper in my prayer life.
So how do I get more out of my prayer life? I think back to something my late mentor and friend, Jim Mabery, once shared with me. He told me how he liked to walk the paths and trails of Hot Springs Village for his TAG (Time Alone with God) time. He told me how he would not only pray, but sing, with God and nature serving as his audience.
Throughout Scripture, we repeatedly find prayer in connection with other disciplines: fasting, worship, singing, solitude. Sometimes, I fear we short-change the real power in prayer by using simple sentence prayers under the banner of "pray(ing) without ceasing." The result? Real concentrated, devoted times of communion with God are sacrificed. But those times of real concentrated, devoted prayer are the very catalyst for real life transformation. "In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God's thoughts after Him: to desire the things He desires, to love the things He loves, to will the things He wills. Progressively, we are taught to see things from His point of view" (Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, 33-34).
Getting more out of our prayer life is as simple as combining more disciplines, like fasting, meditation, solitude and personal worship, to our times of prayer. Prayer changes things...including the pray-er!
