Prayer: Forty Days Of PracticeSample

ACHILLES TENDONS AND DIFFERENT WAYS TO PRAY

I love jogging. Always have. When I was in my twenties, I’d go out and run for 6 to 7 miles every day. So when my Achilles tendons started to bug me, I got frustrated. And then I did the very thing I shouldn’t have done: I ignored it. Over time, irritation became pain and pain became injury. And the next thing I knew, I couldn’t jog anymore. 

I called my friend Bonnie Lang. She’s a fitness coach and has known me for years. Her recommendation shocked me: “You get off your feet for a while.” 

I sighed. 

“That’s unfortunate. I was just developing a good exercise rhythm,” I said.

“No,” she laughed, “I’m not saying to quit working out. I’m just saying change things up. Get in a pool or on a bike.” 

My body wasn’t saying, “Stop doing healthy things.” It was saying, “Stop doing that particular thing for a season”—like jogging, in this case. So, instead of reading my pain as a sign that I ought to cease from physical activity altogether, I changed things up and did other exercise. The pain eventually disappeared, which meant I was eventually able to jog and hike again without discomfort. Meanwhile, I got to give myself the gift of discovering just how much I hate swimming! 

This is similar to the agrarian concept of crop rotation. If a farmer doesn’t rotate the crops she’s planted in a field from season to season, the soil loses its capacity to produce healthily, which eventually compromises the quality of her primary crop. I’m learning that the same principle applies to spiritual practice; if I plant the same seed over and over, I eventually wear out the soil, and it can grow unhealthily. 

What if the dryness of your prayer life isn’t because there’s something wrong? What if it’s just time to rotate your crops? What if, instead of sitting down to pray, you walk? Or pray in the car instead of at your house? Pray with your eyes open instead of closed? Sit in silence instead of using any words at all? Put down that devotional tool you’ve used for a decade now? Like my friend Bonnie, I’m not saying to stop being healthy; I’m suggesting you might find other ways to be spiritually healthy…and that finding those different ways is a healthy spiritual practice in and of itself.