I Gave God a Rocking Chair: Finding Your Own Place of Prayer

I am a squirrel chaser. Always have been. My mind will follow a distraction the way a dog follows a smell — enthusiastically and without apology.

So when people talk about prayer, and they describe this quiet, still, perfectly focused conversation with God, I nod politely. And then I wonder if we are talking about the same type of brain. Because my brain is all over the place!

What I had to learn — and what changed everything for me — is that prayer does not always look like stillness. Sometimes it looks like pulling weeds. Sometimes it looks like a slow walk through the neighborhood. Your body can be moving while a corner of your mind stays in conversation with God. I call it functioning prayer. The Bible calls it praying without ceasing. Turns out they are the same thing.

But I will tell you what I also needed. I needed a place.

My place is a rocking chair. That is my closet — not the one in Scripture with a literal door, but the spirit of it. A private spot where I sit and have a real conversation. I talk. I listen. I cry sometimes. I laugh more than people might expect. I show up as I actually am, not as I think I should be.

I get up at 5:30 most mornings to be there. The house is quiet. The world is quiet. When I am done, I pour a cup of coffee and watch the sun come up. That moment — the light breaking over everything — still takes my breath away. Every single time.

If you are someone who has always felt like you were doing prayer wrong, I want you to know something: you probably are not. You may just need a rocking chair.

This post is drawn from ideas explored more fully in my book, A God Chat: The Art of Praying Without Ceasing. If something here stirred your heart, there is more waiting for you there.