In Praise of Prayer Walks

Sunday afternoons are such an unpredictable time for me. There are weeks where I’m flying high after a Sunday morning. The sermon connected, the building was full, I have a clear sense that we’re going somewhere and the Lord is powerfully at work. There are other weeks where I’m content, totally at peace with what happened that morning. And then there are the occasional weeks where Sunday afternoon is the lowest of lows. I can usually see it coming too, in the morning, during the service. That’s what happened on Sunday. I could already tell while preaching at the 11am service where the day was heading. It seemed like everything was falling flat and the wind was being taken out of my sails. Halfway through the sermon, it was like survival mode in my mind. Just make it through this intact and live to fight another day, you know? And when I left after the services to drive home, the emotional weight of discouragement began crushing me. I don’t know how better to describe it. It was like an extraordinarily heavy burden that was pressing itself down on me.

That’s never a great experience, but especially not on Father’s Day. As I walked through the door of my home, the kids greeted me with a beautiful rendition of “happy father’s day” (happy birthday but with an obvious substitution). They gave me my first gift- a giant gift bag that was revealed to hold a huge stalk of celery. That was a great little prank. As you know, I hate celery with a passion, so…well done children and wife! That’s genuine, no sarcasm. It was really funny! The second gift had a variety of spicy snacks (something I actually do love) and a couple of beautiful handmade, heartfelt cards. I couldn’t be more blessed, and yet the response I was able to muster fell well short of what it should have been. 

Sunday being Father’s Day meant we headed over to Carolyn’s parents in the afternoon for a BBQ dinner with the whole family. Ordinarily, that’s an awesome Sunday thing to do. Me being in the throes of a temporary existential crisis, not so great. I was grateful the World Cup was on because it meant I could sit in front of a screen and watch my seventh favourite sport without needing to carry a conversation. I found myself once again in survival mode, just aiming to make it through the day. Then a thought came to me. I could start walking home and Carolyn could pick me up on the way. I realized I desperately needed to bring this all to the Lord. So I began walking. I began walking really fast. I thought I’d make it one block before Carolyn and the kids picked me up. As it turned out, they stayed quite a bit longer and I power walked seven kilometres in 45 minutes or so. 

By the time I jumped into our Kia at a bus stop on Boundary Road, I was a new man. The load had been lifted, my mind was cleared, my heart had been re-oriented. What changed? It’s hard to say exactly, but the walk wasn’t just a walk. It was a vigorous prayer walk where I cried out to the Lord and proclaimed biblical truth to myself. Some of this was even somewhat verbal. It wasn’t just in my mind, I talked out loud to the Lord about this stuff, which I think startled a few people along the way who heard me before they saw me!

Almost all my most genuine, heartfelt, vulnerable, powerful prayers have come through prayer walks like that one. Some of them stand out in my memories as pivotal moments of discipleship that resulted in clear answers to prayer. Some of them have involved long walks in the middle of the night that passed surprisingly quickly, especially during 24/7 prayer weeks here at The Bridge. There’s something about walking that just seems to open up my heart to God more than sitting in a chair or on a couch. I’d like to think there’s something biblical about this- at the very least, it would seem that some of Jesus’ conversations with his disciples were “on the way” somewhere (eg. Luke 24:13-35). Jesus’ presence with his churches is spoken of as him “walking” among them (Revelation 2:1). It was as Paul walked around Athens that he understood both its idolatry and what God wanted him to say about it (Acts 17:23). Walking is also a common biblical metaphor for the way we live our life before the Lord (eg. Genesis 5:22-24, Deuteronomy 10:12, Galatians 5:16). I’m telling you, there’s something about walking that’s just good for the soul!

So if you encounter a moment of season of deep discouragement, know that you’re not alone. In case you ever thought that pastors were above such things, that we just float above the daily trials the rest of humanity faces, let this post disabuse you of that idea. We are all vulnerable to this. But if you’re open to my counsel, here it is. When you’re in that situation, try going for a prayer walk. Lay it all before the Lord, frustrations and all, and ask Him to remind you of the truth. Keep walking and praying it out, even if it takes so long you find yourself in Langley. There’s nothing like a prayer walk to clear the heart.

- Craig