Prayer walk

Prayer walk

You can’t force some things 

Am I feeling sufficiently at PEACE to go to work today… ?

Hmmm… I’m not sure… the thing is, there has to be a real desire from the heart to go – it mustn’t be just something I do out of a sense of duty…

If that’s how you think on getting up in the morning, don’t be surprised if in the evening, your boss follows your example:

I don’t know if I really WANT to pay them their salary this month… I don’t think I really feel like it… 

I don’t feel at PEACE with that idea…

A ‘Shortcut’?

I often take shortcuts through the forest to get to my studio. It’s a bit strange, because it’s only one floor down from where I live! At the same time, it really helps me to save time (as long as I don’t get lost!), because I have a daily meeting with God (unless it’s God who has a daily meeting with me… ?).

To ‘waste’ time on things that really matter, is to save time.

My feelings and desires, whether I’m being tossed about on a stormy sea of emotions, or whether I’m enjoying a respite from the stresses and strains of life, don’t actually change anything – it’s not my feelings that are in charge (capiche!?…I’m pointing it out because sometimes you get the impression that our emotions haven’t quite realized that…).

Warning: religion about!

When I’m walking but not really concentrating, sometimes I’ll serve up a whole raft of meaningless phrases:

Be to you thanks! Ohhh my Lord! 

(What’s the ‘ohhh’ about again?)

Arggh! Imagine someone spoke to you like that – I can’t think of anything more cringeworthy! God deserves more than that…

I’m not here to do my ‘prayer’ homework,

but to sincerely seek God

(seeing as how I often lose sight of Him).

Yoohoo… is anyone there?!

I’m walking through a meadow, feeling a little ridiculous, because it seems like I’m talking and there’s nobody else there…

At the same time, Jesus said: Believe in me…’

not: ‘Feel something through me…’

… Okay, so I’m going to decide to believe.

I embark on an animated account of all my woes:

It’s terrible – I don’t seem to be able to get my comic books onto the shelves – all the store bosses tell me thanks but no thanks (what’s more, they say no because I want to talk about you!).

(That was my challenge! At that time, I thought it was the toughest one I’d ever have to face…)

Lord, it’s like there are walls blocking my way…

Give me a chariot with a snow plough* mounted in front (*it’s a Swiss thing, you wouldn’t really understand…) so that I can break them down!

My prayers are accompanied by extravagant, Italian-style arm gestures (from a distance, you might think I was on the receiving end of a hornet attack!). As I returned home, Gritsburgerandfries (not his real name) was there to greet me.

Swept along by the torrent of people exiting the church, I slip out of the building. There, hidden behind a few believers exchanging pleasantries, my eyes met those of a stranger.

I immediately saw that those eyes had already looked into God’s gaze.

Intrigued, I went up to him and asked:

So who are you?

I come from Geneva. At the moment I’m working on a local farm but they haven’t been very welcoming towards me…I’m finding it pretty tough…

– Really? Well, why don’t you come and stay with us for a while if you want? (he stayed for 2 weeks….).

He sports a big beard and boasts an imposing physique 

(his big belly really suits him).

When he prays, he simply sinks into an armchair – he can spend hours there, completely still…

When Gritsburgerandfries opens the hall door, it’s like receiving an enormous gust of God’s presence in your face, there’s something almost physical about it, like a kind of cloud !!! Gritsburgerandfries’ head appeared through the half-open door and with his usual calm, he looked at me and said:

Hey Alain, I was praying for you and I saw you in a vision! You were on a chariot which had a snow-plough mounted on the front and you were breaking down all the walls that stood in your way!!!

–  !!? (Incredible! Had he got news by fax or what?! 

Hmm… Lord, if you tell everyone all my secrets, I’ll stop telling you anything at all… !)

When you talk to God (I’m talking about the God of the Bible, the only one I’ve got in stock), you’re talking to a God who really does listen….whether or not you can actually sense that…

Like many people, I’m going through a very difficult time, and the tumult of this is preventing me from hearing God’s voice clearly… but this real-life story reminds me that He listens…

and that He will not let those who put their trust in Him to fall any further than into the palm of His hand.

(Translated by Stephen Kells)

 

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