As I dig around in my faith to find connections between prayer and the quality of relationship I have with God, I can’t help but discover the same connections between contact and my relationships with people.

If I were to rate myself on a level of 1-10 for how well someone does with lasting friendships, I’d probably give myself about a 3. Now, I’m not talking about those relationships that you’ve had since you were little and you’ve been friends with someone for 10+ years…we’ve probably all got one or two of those gems in our collection.

What I’m talking about specifically are those who have distanced themselves from me…be it geographically or emotionally.

Something I’ve noticed is that over the last few years I have developed a tendency to love on people until they are out of the picture. Once they’re gone…they’re gone. I’m just not that good at maintaining relationships with those people who I don’t see on a regular basis.

Some of this behavior seems normal, and almost obvious, as it truly is an “out of sight, out of mind” situation a lot of times. But, something I’ve recognized is that I think I do it on purpose. In the past, there have been situations where I have given a piece of myself to someone and they took off with it.

The next time an opportunity comes up where I can “give of myself” to someone, I’ll think twice because…WHAT IF THEY LEAVE TOO? This hinders my relationships with people and I end up holding them at a distance so they can’t disappoint me.

I do this with God sometimes.

For me, I’m making a serious effort to continue the connection with those people who I might not hear back from. If I’m willing to be persistent in my relational investment towards someone, I’ll be better off either way, because then I don’t have to fight with the feelings of guilt or shame…or numbness.

And I’ve got to be persistent in my relational investment with God…because who knows…He just might answer.

I am writing an upcoming message on prayer. It’s part of the Reset Journey that we’ve been taking part in for the last few weeks. The title of this message will be: JESUS RESET PRAYER.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject. You can feel free to share a little bit about what prayer is, or isn’t, to you. Anything you want really.

* What is prayer?

* Does prayer work?

* How do you pray?

* When do you pray?

You can absolutely share any thoughts you have on the subject here. Good or bad. Exciting or indifferent. You will NOT be judged for your opinions.

Open mic starts now: