I made a surprise visit home to visit the rents today. Home, so great. On the ferry ride back I couldn't help but take some pics...one month down on photo of the day project.

Also, had some time to read Chapter 3 in Celebration of Discipline, the book my Bible study is currently in to. The discipline of focus - prayer. Loved it. Realizing that in order to go deeper in this adventure I need to devote more time and focus listening to God. Yes, you heard right, listening. My "best" prayers, prayers where I feel a deep connection, a link, a presence with God are the ones that stem from me sitting quiet, calming my thoughts and just listening. Foster has some great things to say on the subject...some I would love to share.

"To pray is to change."

If my spiritual goal is transformation, I don't want to be stagnant. I want change. I want to constantly be moving deeper into relationship, deeper into knowing and understanding God and his Kingdom. I want to see things from God's perspective, not my own.

"We are to change the world by prayer."

I like this. So often I think of God in his omniscience knowing all that is to come has already made up his mind...that everything is set. But why pray if things cannot change? God wouldn't ask us to pray if he didn't want us to work with him in determining the future.

"We must hear, know, and obey the will of God before we pray it into the lives of others."

God's guidance precedes intercession.

"If we genuinely love people, we desire for them far more than it is within our power to give, and that will cause us to pray."

Compassion moves us to pray. It is those times of listening, of silence, when you know God is moving through a change in the heart, a compulsion, a flow of his Spirit leading you to intercede.

I agree with Archbishop Tait when he says, "I want a life of greater, deeper, truer prayer."