to become a woman of prayer

Last night I couldn't sleep. It wasn't that I didn't give it a shot; I tried and failed.

I have this book, A Young Woman's Call to Prayer, that I bought in the summertime. And lately--as in, since then--I've been feeling that I should respond.

There was this one girl in KCCC that everyone knew. Her name started with 'n' and she played tennis, but she was known for being a prayer warrior. She prayed all the time--out loud and exuberantly. I thought, I want to be like that. My mom has a friend whom she praises as a prayer warriors. And it's so doable. It doesn't take a lot of money, or skills. But it's so effective.

And so I bought the book. This is embarassing, but when I read Step 1, I was actually surprised. "Pray right now," it said. And, it had to be for at least five minutes. So I prayed, and last night I picked up at Step 2: "What Keeps Me from Praying?".

There was the requisite Top Ten Reasons list, and the one that I'm most guilty of is probably #4, Distance. Whenever you feel too distant to pray, that's when you need it the most.

So I prayed for quite a while last night (ok just for the five minutes) and it was still awesome. Why is it that i just have to put in five minutes, but God fills me with joy spilling even to now?

"Make a prayer notebook," it tells me. Now, I already have a journal for journaling prayers, but i don't for prayer requests. And this journal you see here I've been holding onto for a year and a half. It was too beautiful for any of my conjectured reasons, but i think last night it found its destiny.