Prayer is no flight into the extraordinary; it's a descent into true humanity. It's a union of heaven and earth, the sanctifying of the ordinary--the ordinary recovered by God, paradise regained. Prayer, the prayer that follows the impulse of love, that works to forget all else but God, is the reunion of my self, the reintegration of my being. Prayer is not about getting things from God, calling on God to toss me a life vest. Rather, it's the hard journey past all the alluring things that claim me, call me from the path. Prayer is true freedom, which is why prayer is a way of life and not a mere task or duty.
Finally human: maturing in the life of prayer
Abiding in love is the fruit of years of spiritual practice. There’s no shortcut to this experience of full union with God in Christ through the Spirit, nor is there any way for you to bring yourself here. It comes to you. You become “a partaker of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1.4) only because you’ve participated all along the way along with the mischief of God at work in you—through all your joys and sorrows. You’ve finally become fully human, alive to love, and therefore a person in whom all the fullness of God abides (Ephesians 3.19). This doesn’t mean that you will live without suffering or frustration, temptation or even anger. Rather, when you abide in love, you know how to sublimate your reactivity to such things. You can redirect your spirit quickly and re-establish yourself in the current of God’s love.
Learn to savor every step and happiness will come your way
In the desert tradition of early Christianity, there's this little teaching tale that warns us to stay grounded here and now, that is to keep our feet on the ground. "The elder said, 'If you see a young monk by his own will climbing into heaven, take him by the foot and throw him to the ground, because what he is doing is not good for him.'”
Likewise, resist the temptation to be somewhere other than where you are, especially some illusion of a better life that's not rooted in the reality of your own present life.
Instead, draw into your body the gifts that are coming to you from God today. You might have to look hard and discerningly, but they're there, all around you, "If you have eyes to see and ears to hear". Keep your feet on the ground, walking the path of your own life, feeling life as you're living it: the seams in the tile beneath your feet, the sponginess of the carpet in your office at work, the hot asphalt in the parking lot.
Then with each step, your toes and soles will grow increasingly familiar with the ground beneath your feet, for God has said it’s “holy” (Exodus 3.5).
The more you learn to savor every step, the more you’ll find yourself awake to the presence of God.
And happiness will come your way.
Why you're not happy
If I asked you why you’re not as happy as you’d like to be, you’d probably say that whatever degree of unhappiness, resentment, or frustration that’s within you is due to something about your work, your health, your relationships, your financial situation, or something having to do with a condition outside you. In short, there’s something within you that wishes things were different outside you.
You're not content with things as they are.
God is in the mundane or God is nowhere at all
Escape, of course, holds great allure. I get that. Believe me, I know it’s pull. But the truth I’ve learned from experience and the witness of those who’ve lived life best is this: God’s waiting to meet you in what you probably consider the dullest chores, the drabbest moments, the most unexciting and uninteresting places of your ordinary life.
God is in the mundane or God is nowhere at all.
Your inability to embrace that truth keeps you from the happiness you desire, the experience of love you seek.