Walking and Praying

5.16.22            Walking and Praying

One of the best ways I have found to pray is to walk a labyrinth. This is a circle of paths which lead to the center and then back out again. In a way walking the labyrinth is just like our lives: there are turns so often that it begins to remind you of all the sharp turns your life has taken as this thing and that came unexpectedly in your life. As we walk the labyrinth and execute the turns, we tend to slow down so that we’re at a meditative pace in which we can pray as we walk. When we reach the center, we can lift all these prayers/thoughts up to God, and then, just stand for a few minutes in prayer, before we turn around and head back to the beginning.

If you’re walking the labyrinth when other people are on the labyrinth, too, for a minute you will see them and then you’ve turned or they’ve turned and they are not in sight. Again and again. It is so interesting.

At the end of the labyrinth, I usually take a few minutes to thank God for all that He is to me, all that He blesses me with, even for the challenges He has given me.  When I lived just a quarter mile from a labyrinth, I probably walked it two or three times a month. When I moved to another part of the city, I haven’t found one that I like to walk—to my regret.

I am a walker—that’s my chief exercise. And when I walk through the neighborhood I carry on a conversation with God. I ask questions, I lift up my concerns, I enjoy the beauty of the neighborhood where I live and thank Him for the beauty of this earth. I don’t even care if neighbors think I ‘m talking to myself or whatever, I am engrossed in participating with God in my walk.

Prayer happens wherever we are, whatever we are doing. All through our days, we can turn to God for guidance, for comfort, for His presence. He makes our days so much more doable, more interesting, filling them with love and blessings and joy, no matter whether we are at work or at leisure, with family or friends, doing what we love or just doing what we have to do. God walks through all our days with us whether we are aware of His presence or not. How much more interesting our days are when we turn to God in prayer in everything we do.