Pray as you can, not as you can't

Tonight our cafe-style service was on the theme 'pray as you can, not as you can't.'  I find prayer difficult, and I'm constantly meeting Christians who tell me "I wish I prayed more."  I figured maybe someone who wasn't a natural contemplative might be a good person to plan a creative prayer evening.  While at college I was always moaning that it was always introverts who planned this stuff...

For the extroverts, we had coffee, cake and discussion questions in the coffee lounge.  This, for me, was the comfortable bit - talking with other people about stuff while drinking coffee (decaf, natch).  Then people were invited to move next door and sample some of the prayer stations, with Norah Jones playing quietly in the background.  (Most of the worship music on my mp3 player is loud and not  conducive to meditation).  

There was a table with craft materials, including magazines and craft papers, where people were invited to make a prayer collage.  This is something I do on retreat - because I like art but I can't draw well, so I cut pictures out of magazines and stick them together to make something beautiful.  I tend to choose a Bible verse and produce a collage reflecting on it, and on how it applies to my life.  I figure that having my hands busy allows me to stay still long enough for God to get a word in.  

More exciting still was a bucket of air drying clay with instructions to make your own holding cross.  These are usually made out of wood, but the beauty of moulding them from clay is that you can make a cross which fits your hand exactly.  The motto of Spurgeon's college is Et teneo et teneor - I hold and am held.  We hold on to Christ, and Christ holds on to us.  Using a holding cross in prayer is a way of remembering this.  

There were also more sensible prayer stations with books of prayers to look through for inspiration, and a prayer guide produced by the church leadership.  They were my attempt to think about what might help someone who is actually able to sit still for more than five minutes.

All of this was inspired by Ruth Fowke's marvellous book, Personality and Prayer.  She points out very helpfully that we are all different.  Some of us might find spending an hour in silent meditation blissful; for others, it would be agony.  Give yourself a break, she suggests.  Pray as you can, not as you can't.