Pastor Chris Maxwell challenged a small group of us last Friday to pick a couple of spiritual disciplines and try to incorporate/re-incorporate them into our lives over the weekend. He asked us to choose one we like and one with which we struggle. I struggle with meditation. So, I’m trying to take a little time at the beginning of each day to settle my mind and spirit and listen…just listen to the sounds around me and take them in.

That Sunday morning, as I sat on the couch at home with my eyes closed…just listening, I immediately noticed two crows calling back and forth to the other. I could hear one out of my right ear, and it sounded close, just outside my living room window. The other I could hear mostly with my left ear and it sounded at least several hundred yards away. But, I realized they were communicating with one another. In fact, they sounded the same to me.

I was reminded of prayer through what I was hearing, a call and a response. And, really, I’m not sure which crow was leading the discussion. The fact that the crows sounded the same reminds me that prayer/communion with God is similar. Prayer is as much our response to God’s calling as it is anything else. In prayer, we learn to recognize God’s voice and respond accordingly. We learn to imitate Christ, our intercessor. 

In prayer, we aren’t informing God as much as God is informing us. Prayer is a means of God getting us on the same page with Him, rather than the other way around.