If you get thirsty enough, water is all you can think about. My severest thirst occurred during a practice war game in the mountains of Nevada when I was in the Marine Corps. After hours of hiking above eight thousand feet, my legs gave out due to the absence of oxygen. Along with that, I was out of water. Lying on the ground thinking I might die, another Marine casually walked by and tossed a canteen full of fresh water over to me. I mumbled, “Thank you!” Whoever he was, he did not turn around, but kept on moving forward to give other Marines the lifeline of water. It was the greatest drink of water of my life. At that moment the curse of thirst gave way to the blessing of water.
We can thirst for God as well as for water. This thirst may be subtler and more difficult to define than the parched mouth of water deprivation. Yet once it is in operation, nothing and no one else but God can satisfy that thirst. Psalm 63 says this most poignantly.
Pray This Way. With Dr. Hal Green
Humanity as a whole is in desperate need to rediscover and reconnect with God. Prayer offers the only means available to do so directly and satisfactorily. Dr. Hal Green has been teaching and conducting prayer retreats for three decades across the Midwest of the United States. His book, Pray Like This to Connect with God, is set to be published later this year. Like the book, the podcasts will describe the nature of prayer, along with examining various aspects of prayer and praying. These subjects will be followed by a multitude of prayer exercises in the areas of breath prayers, praying the scriptures (Lectio Divina), praying with the saints, meditative prayer, and contemplative prayer.
The goal of the podcasts will be to guide persons from ignorance of, to encounter with, God. Sadly, so few persons are aware of the astounding wealth of prayer knowledge and experience available to us across more than two millennia. The heart of the podcasts, then, will be to assist listeners to morph from prayer as a monologue to God, to prayer as a dialogue with God.