Each year I make plans for a prayerful Advent. It never works out quite the way I hope, though.
You see, much of my December is filled with backstage work for my daughter’s Nutcracker performances. Life gets busy—and then busier—and though I set aside time in the mornings to pray, sometimes the frenetic pace of the day outstrips whatever peace and focus I started with.
But I suspect that thinking of prayer like a gas station, as a place I go and fuel up so I can drive through the rest of the day, is a bad analogy. Prayer could be more like solar power, permeating all that I do, everywhere I go.
There is absolutely nothing (other than my forgetfulness and distraction) preventing me from praying as I stitch up costumes. There’s no one saying, “No! Don’t pray for the people you work with while you’re working!” There’s no sign in the wings of the theater forbidding me from whispering blessings upon the dancers.
I can have a prayerful Advent—if I have a prayerful mindset. You can, too. Shall we try?
