Unshackled Moments ~ July 25 ~ Blow Out

I try to spend time in prayer every day where I am fully and completely focused on the prayer, where nothing is in the way. I try to express gratitude and have a thankful heart all through the day. Some days I'm better at it than others, but the more I do it, the more I see how much I don't do it enough. Some days I don't even want to enough.

The day before yesterday though I was able to pray a perfect and pure prayer. Help. That's it. The back tire on my motorcycle went flat, and as I felt the bike going out from under me, I pulled up and out of the lean I had thrown myself into in order to make the curve. The bike wobbled and fish-tailed rapidly. If there had been a car coming the other way I would have been in even more trouble as I was lucky to keep the bike up and on the road. Keeping it in my lane through the turn wasn't going to happen.

I remember that prayer. Help. And as I remember te feeling in my gut as the motorcycle seemed to go less solid, I have no doubt that the grace of God kept me from going down. My guardian angel got some overtime pay. I'm still not exactly sure how I got the bike through the curve, over to the side of the road and stopped. But once I did I had a moment of thanksgiving without hesitation or distraction. My hands were shacking. I felt a little nauseous for a few minutes, but I was praising and thanking God. The moment of crisis pulled everything together within me and directed it to God while pushing everything else away. There were no random songs or thoughts or anything like that getting in the way of my prayer.

I'm grateful that at that moment I instinctively and reflexively reached out to Jesus. I'm grateful that afterward I spontaneously spent time in praise and thanksgiving. But now I want more. I want to be able to enter in to prayer as focused as that, where everything else in the world is gone  and it's just me and God, on a regular basis and without a crisis. I don't want it to take  the threat of immediate death to make me let go of the  world and it's distractions and put all my attention on Him. Today I will let the world fade away and focus on Jesus.