I never imagined that canyoneering or participating in the sport of exploring a canyon by engaging in such activities as rappelling, rafting, and waterfall jumping, would be a turning point for my prayer life. As a follower of Christ, one of the core habits that one should form is a life of prayer. And that doesn't just mean saying a little prayer upon wake up in the morning, or before eating main meals for the day, or before sleeping everyday, nor that means praying on more than average duration every church gatherings on a Sunday. Although those are as staple as rice for food, a life of prayer that the Bible commands we should have is a kind that doesn't cease (2 Thessalonians 5:17). But who would relate to me that even as I try to set schedule for personal prayer time, or keep a journal of what to pray for, I still happen to miss out on this simple discipline? I even rush prayer at times or am too busy to stop for a minute to pray for a friend requesting for one. And oh, do you experience falling asleep during your prayers, too?
Developing Prayer Life the Natural Way
In my 10 years of being a Christian under construction though, I have learned that prayer life should not be forced lest it would become just an obligatory routine which, effective as it may be when done with faith, may not be aligned with how the Lord wants me to relate to Him. Why and when and how I pray has to be out of the level of my personal relationship with him rather than the responsibility of being able to do tasks as I bear His name. In short, I progress in my prayer when I do it without pressure, just out of the overflow of my heart. However, outside of my chat prayers with God during transit time and my faith prayers during my daydreams, I would usually forget to come to him for help when I'm already doing my everyday job. I'm grateful that somehow He has already helped me cope with my office job that I could do it but it's not at all beneficial to my prayer life. Although, there are big happenings at work that would really cause me to pray, but business as usual is easy and manageable, therefore prayer is not much needed.
I was highly inspired by Garry Haugen's words in his book Just Courage,
"Mother Theresa said that she couldn't imagine doing her work for more than 30 minutes without prayer. Do you and I have work that we can't imagine doing for thirty minutes without prayer? If not, perhaps we need a new life's work. Or perhaps we need to do an old life's work in a new way. I won't need to be in prayer every thirty minutes if I don't really need God's power to get it done, or if it's work that God doesn't really need done because it has nothing to do with His kingdom."
When I read that, I thought to myself "I want that kind of occupation that would require me to depend on God every moment, not just every 30 minutes or when there's just big happenings." But that hype cooled down a little bit as I know I couldn't leave work yet.
The Canyoneering Experience
I haven't experienced, I think, depending on God that often until I tried the extreme adventure of canyoneering in South Cebu. As my group traversed the canyon stretching from Alegria to Badian, Cebu, I was having more than an adventure, but a lot of revelations. Extreme adventures put you in that position of needing to pray not just every 30 minutes but every second. That's the experience I had during the entire time that I was canyoneering which consisted of the following exhilarating adventures:
1. Cliff jumping. Yes I was almost always the first one to jump. I just perfectly know that nothing would go wrong when I fall and that I would almost instantly come back up because of my Jesus-like life vest. :) Everytime when I would jump, my faith in God was strengthened.
2. Floating and swimming. Wonder how floating enhanced my prayer, when in fact it was easy? Well, when I look forward, beyond or even upward, I couldn't help but be amazed with how beautiful God created this part of Earth, and that I was actually in it :) Words of praise and awe can't help but leave my lips. I couldn't fathom with my mind and heart how God could've brought me there. :)
3. Climbing, descending and traversing through rivers, rocks, both the slippery and safe kind, and wet trails... with no shoes. I only have my slippery-when-wet flip flops with me when during the whole time, although the guides have continually reminded me prior to the activity that it would be better to have aqua rubber shoes, which I could rent for just P50. However, my stubborn self really wouldn't listen because I preferred that my feet would feel free and that I could feel with my skin the water and rocks. Of course, that's not the best practice. I slipped a couple of time and I event had a toe injury after slipping from a slippery rock. Silly me. But what I don't regret with this poor decision was that my faith was not in the soles of a shoes but on God himself. I would lift each step to God so as to make me surefooted, that my feet would not cause me to stumble and cause serious injury.
The Challenge
Now what if we, Christians, get the opportunity to undergo something like canyoneering every moment? How excitingly consistent would our prayer life be? I don't really mean that we pursue a career in guiding canyoneers or other extreme activities that would require us to depend on God's help more than our skills and common sense to stay alive until the next hour. But I suggest that we should engage with some extreme adventures that would take our trust in God to the next level. And by extreme adventures, I meant activities or hobbies that are beyond ourselves... i.e, pouring our lives for the the kingdom of God, shepherding the next generation, helping save and restore human trafficking victims, reaching out to people affected by crisis or those diminished by injustice, or whatever God may have put in our hearts to act on but are too big for our little self to get involve into. These are, after all, what God would want to see us doing more than our usual Sunday worship services and fasting (Isaiah 1:11-17 and Isaiah 58:3-7).
These calling-based occupation would definitely require ultimate dependence on God that would lead to a heathy, unforced prayer life. :) So... when and what is your next adventure?
