The other day I was working with a friend of mine to tape off one of our church college classrooms for painting, and as she handed me strips of tape she began to talk about something that had come to annoy her -- for the past several days she had begun to cry while she prayed. She then related a story about how God had shown her it was alright to cry while talking with him.

I didn't know what to say. A large part of my mind told me that I was supposedly a spiritual leader for her: I lead her LIFE Group, I carry a lot of responsibility for her campus ministry, I teach classes, I pray for her... but in that moment I simply had to shed all self-important masks and realize that I simply did not know that kind of intimate prayer. I've had moments of life-changing prayer, but that day I hadn't even bothered to try, no less have trouble being overcome while doing so.

We talk a lot about prayer. I'm even adding to the pile of words right now with this blog. But how does it compare to our practice? How does the amount of words we say about prayer stack up to the amount of words of prayer? The reality is that my ratio is way off. I think God is well aware of this, and used my friend, with just a few words, to tell me what I was missing.