It is weird how God can bring things into your life. I have an interest in learning how to travel for cheaper so I listen to some travel podcasts. I was checking out a new one when I saw that they were interviewing Jared Brock about his book A Year of Living Prayerfully.
I read more than my share of prayer books. When I told my wife that I had just read the most interesting book on prayer that I had read in a while she said, “That is saying something.” Books on prayer can have good stuff in it, but not be something I would recommend because they are boring. A Year of Living Prayerfully is not one of those books.
The subtitle will start to give you a picture of what you are in for: How a Curious Traveler Met the Pope, Walked on Coals, Danced with Rabbis, and Revived His Prayer Life. A Year of Living Prayerfully is one person’s journey to bring new life to his prayer life. In the book Pete Greig says that most prayer books are written by introverts; this book definitely is not one of them.
I love how Jared travels the world to do what he can to take his prayer life to the next level. He visits places like monasteries to learn the history of prayer. We follow his attempts at meeting Billy Graham and he even visits Westboro Baptist Church.
Although it is a personal journey he introduces the reader to many varieties of ways to pray. Quoting from Pete Grieg again, “The Bible says to pray at all times with all kinds of prayers, but a lot of people think that prayer is just one thing. That’s like going to a buffet and only ever eating one item. You’ll get sick. You need a huge variety in order to stay healthy. Prayer is a menu, not a dish.”
[tweetthis]Prayer is like a buffet. You need a huge variety to stay healthy.[/tweetthis]
Now let me remind you that this is one person’s journey in the life of prayer. Some of his conclusions were impacted by the experiences he had. He did not have a good experience visiting the world’s largest church and it showed. I have written here before that I had a great experience visiting the world’s largest church. Even with saying that, I think that if you take his honest journey with him you will grow in your prayer life. I recommend you check it out. (or affiliate link)
(Disclaimer: I have not been paid in any way to write this review. If you hate the book you can take it up with Jared. If you like the book you can send me Chipotle gift cards.)
