to pray

4/12/11 Yesterday I was reading Communitas, a quarterly journal put out by Austin Seminary. The whole issue is on the Art of Preaching. Actually, as I look at the journal, it is one from last year that I never got to read until yesterday. All of the articles are good, hitting home, giving me encouragement to continue this practice of getting up week by week before the congregation and daring to speak a word from God. There was one line from the poet W. H. Auden that pierced my heart: "To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself." In our self-absorbed society, I cannot think of a better definition of prayer. To get ourselves off of the throne, out of the spotlight, and to let God get a word or vision in is to pray. Love, Lynn