Sometimes Prayer Is Showing Up

This weekend our Spiritual Formation class from The Baptist Seminary of Kentucky made a visit to the Abbey of Gethsemani.  Brother Paul, a monk at the Abbey for 57 years, spoke with the students. He talked about the importance of daily prayer, the significant pattern or ritual of showing up with a prayerful attitude.  He also mentioned that often there was the feeling of being so busy that we had rather not make the prayer time.  In addition, he referenced times when it seemed nothing was happening with our prayers.  Nevertheless, there is great value in just showing up, he said.  Scripture says that God's Word will not return void, but it will accomplish its task (Isaiah 55:11.)  So, who among us can really know what God is doing with and through our prayers, even if all we can do for this day is to show up for prayer.