The first time I remember hearing the injunction to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), I thought it was the strangest thing ever. How can you do that? We have lives that need living, after all.

Admittedly I was a teenager at the time, and my imagination was still developing.

We do tend to take things literally, at least when we first hear something from the Bible. We have been conditioned that way through Sunday School and our cultural understanding of Christianity. It is one of our first reactions, so we need to wait for our second reaction before we make a move.

Pray unceasingly… it is possible. We don’t have to change our lives to do it though, just change how we understand prayer.

When many of us think about prayer, we think about long worded petitions to God, as we hold a certain prayer position that often includes our heads bowed, eyes closed, and hands pressed together. But prayer is so much more.

Walking prayers, like walking meditations, are things we do all the time, and we probably don’t even realizing it. Thoughts flow through our minds and get some attention before they flow out again. Those are prayer.

Hearing sirens and hoping no one is seriously hurt, is prayer.

Feeling joy at the wind blowing our hair and the sunshine on our face, is prayer.

Desperation to get out of a scary or abusive situation, is prayer.

Every moment of every day, every thought and emotion, every reaction or observation… those are all prayers.

We do not need to be long winded when spending time with God. Even in the Gospels Jesus says “when you pray, pray like this”. He did not say ‘pray this prayer’, as the church has reported for the last 2000 years. He said pray LIKE this.

Pray for what is around you, your concerns, your joys, your guilt, your awareness.

Pray with your heart, your soul, and your mind.

Pray with words and emotions and intentions.

Pray without ceasing, because every moment is an opportunity to be in God’s presence.

I’ve worked with a number of church communities and Christian groups over the years, and the one part of our faith practice that really seems to upset even the most seasoned person is prayer. When I ask people to pray within a group of their fellow believers, it can sometimes completely breaks them down. Why?

My mother told a story of how decades ago she was in a small Quebec town and they had just finished choir practice when word came that someone important to all of them had died. The priest told them to bow their heads for prayer and then nothing… the priest was busily flipping through pages of a prayer book instead of leading them in a prayer of loss and thanksgiving. My mother’s comments were why was it so hard? They had all known the person, so why couldn’t they pray about them without the words written in a book?

That story has stuck with me through the years as I have encouraged others to pray privately and in a group of people.

Prayer is not hard. It’s just a conversation, and we are not being graded on what we find important or whether our sentence structure uses proper grammar.

Prayer can be as simple as a list of things that come to mind, or as extensive as a small essay with examples and common references.

Prayer can be silent or loud, walking or sitting, bowing or holding our faces up to the sky.

Prayer can be giving thanks or making a request.

Prayer can be sad or angry or happy or filled with joy.

Prayer is simply taking our inner monologue and including God in our thoughts.

The more we pray, and the more we encourage others to pray, the easier it gets.