It was before dawn on Saturday morning and it was cold.  I mean really cold.  My deck thermometer said it was 21 but I think it was lying.  I was going out to have breakfast with a friend and wishing it was a lot warmer.  As I got to the base of my driveway I saw this light bobbing up and down and coming toward me down the street.  Unsure about what it was, I waited until a man came in view.  He was jogging and the light was clipped to his jacket. 

As he came across where I was watching I recognized him as a neighbor and waved.  But what struck me was his expression.  He looked to be in absolute agony.  Instead of waving back he just shook his head as if to say “This is terrible.”  And I don’t doubt he was miserable.  He had resolved to exercise this year and I had little doubt that a few more mornings like this would end that pledge.

As I drove on to my breakfast I was thinking about him and how miserable he looked.  But a few minutes later, I crossed the path of two women jogging on the same dark cold morning.  As I passed them I could see that they were both laughing about something.  They were doing the same thing under the same conditions as my neighbor.  But their attitude was 100% different.  Why?

My neighbor was doing something he knew he ought to do.  His motivation, though good, was driven by a sense of duty.  He was doing something that he knew was good for him but that knowledge, sufficient to send him out the door, was not sufficient to turn his task from an “ought to” agony into a “want to” meeting.  The women were different.  They were spending time with a friend and enjoying that time.  They were reaping the same health benefits as the man but it seemed almost secondary to their friendship.

This gives us a good parallel to a Christian concept.  Some generations ago Christians developed an idea called “the disciplines.”  I am not sure how they decided on that term.  It seems to be a poor choice of words.  I mean, who has fond memories of being disciplined?  You would think they could have found a jazzier name but the concept was basically from the branch of the church we call Puritans and they really weren’t into jazzy stuff.

The theory was (And is, you can still get books teaching this for today.) that we need to train ourselves to pray, read Scripture, etc. on a regular basis.  Sounds a lot like my neighbor’s situation, doesn’t it?  The motivation is “ought to” and the goal is good.  The problem is that “ought to” fails miserably as a long-term motivation.  The vast majority of us wear out and give up just like I predict my neighbor will.

But the women had a different sustaining power.  Friendship.  They were doing exactly the same thing as the man and, no doubt, sought the same benefits.  They had not switched activity but they had switched motives.  Let’s apply that to one of the “Christian disciplines”, prayer.  If we think of it as an “ought to” task, we will not sustain a consistent prayer life.  But things change when we see it as a meeting with a friend.

The bottom line is this:  God loves you and yearns to spend time with you.  That is an amazing concept when you think about it.  The creator of the universe wants you to talk with Him.  Your thoughts, your concerns, your joys, your trials all matter to Him.  And prayer is how we can do this.  Tips on ways to sustain it then are simply advice on ways we can do it and not instructions on ways we must do it.  So here is the question:  Will you please share things you have done that help you sustain your private talk-time with God?