Fresh perspective.

There are many ways I like to pray, but prayer walking is not one of them.

You'd think because of my sensory preferences of information gathering and tendency towards the kinesthetic learning style, that I'd enjoy it very much.  Walking, going, and being at the locations of sources of prayer seem like it'd spark a lot of creative and interesting ways to pray as opposed to sitting in a circle in a room with people holding hands.

And it's true.

I've discovered that it's prayer walking in groups that I don't like.  The prayer walks I've experienced in groups involved confusion around where to walk or which way to walk; the awkwardness of praying out loud so that the people you pass along the way give you strange looks; and not being able to hear someone's prayer, just for a few examples.

God finally nudged me hard enough to take a prayer walk on campus that I had been putting off all summer.

Fine, I said, but I'm going by myself.

And God replied, When did I say you had to go with anyone?  I simply said to go.

Oh.  I guess that's right.

So I went.

God's big nudge had come at a time where I was really frustrated with students for not doing things excellently, with myself for not being able to coach them or lead them well, and with the lack of fruit I was expecting and hoping to see after a few years of hard work.  I was at a breaking point, and knew I needed to do something to empty me of myself and be filled with compassion for RIT.

I committed an hour of my time on campus.  I simply wandered around a part of campus, stopping every once in a while to write down what I observed and what I heard.  Towards the end of that hour I used the contents of this list as springboards for prayer. 

I've only done this prayer walk once so far.  It wasn't an earth-shattering event, but it felt like it was groundbreaking for my hardening heart.  There were no evangelistic moments or divine appointments, but my obedience out of the desire to meet with the Lord created a shift in my posture.  There were no revelations or inspired images, but there were small, new discoveries of things I thought I knew.

Like bubble tea in The Market.  Or that there's a second floor of Global Village where the Study Abroad office is.

God's nudging was for me to do this on a weekly basis, so I'm hoping to get into the habit of spending an hour each week for this kind of prayer walk, exploring a different part of campus.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.