In my holiday travels I learned about prayer at an airport while refilling my water bottle at one of those automatic dispensers on a wall near the restrooms. Not the most glamorous location. Sometimes I get an insight out of nowhere, and I just know it is God.
Prayer is like waiting in line to refill a water bottle at the airport. Before you know it, you’re standing with your hand reached out, watching your emptiness be filled by a source out of physical sight. You see only the water filling you, slowly, as you wait, hand outstretched.
My water bottle is flimsy from over-use, and it collapses when empty. So do I! If I blow air into the bottle, I can increase the capacity it has for holding water. Oh, Holy Spirit, breathe in me, that I may hold more of the Living Water!
Sometimes I think I have to work at prayer. But all I have to do is stand still with my hands outstretched, waiting. And God always fills me.
I drink deeply and find restoration. And every day I need more.
Image (cropped) by Tom Blackburn, Friends of Mason Neck State Park, Virginia State Parks under CC BY 2.0.