Life, it seems, is coming at us faster than ever.  Longer hours at work, more stress, commutes, repairs, exercise, relationships, and endless social connections that encourage us to remain linked in, with updated status reports and timeless tweets - add it all up and life can feel like a video game.  It's coming at you and you're reacting.  Reacting, though, is much different than living.  When I'm reacting, I end up preaching because I'm expected to say something, rather than because I've something to say.  I feel scattered, ineffective, stressed.I've felt this way too much in 2010, and so I'm heading back to "first things", foundational truths that are considered foundational precisely because life can be built on them.  I Samuel 30 tells the story of a time in David's life when he felt overwhelmed.  After some enemies ransacked a village, stealing his wives and children, he was overwhelmed with grief.  On top of that, his few faithful friends were so angry over the kidnapping that they blamed David for it and there was talk of stoning him to death.  It was a bad week.  We all have them, though not often to that degree.The first thing David did, we learn, was he "strengthened himself in the Lord".  This is the best first thing any of us could do, before diet, exercise, yoga classes, new goals and objectives, or attending another seminar.  Billions are made each year by capitalizing on our fundamental discontent - our sense of dis-ease that sends us looking in a thousand directions for ways to make life better.  I'd like to humbly suggest that whatever you're resolving to do differently in 2011, if you don't have any habits that help you strengthen yourself in the Lord, start there.   Specifically:I resolve to pray 5 minutes a day - at least 5 days a week.If that sounds overwhelming, here are five options for structuring your five minutes of prayer:

Contemplative prayer sounds restful. Instead of spending all my prayer time talking to God, why not just listen once in a while – resting in the presence of God and waiting on Him? My pastor explained that contemplative prayer involved settling down in silence, just focusing on God, and repeating a phrase like "Lord, have mercy" or the name of Jesus to keep one's attention on Him. I recognized that it was exactly the sort of thing I needed to do, and hey! it sounded easy.

It’s not.

Over the past year, as I’ve experimented with contemplative prayer, I’ve discovered that it is, in fact, really hard.

Contemplative prayer feels like gripping tightly onto a rope when there are little hands tugging at my clothes to pull me away.

Last week it suddenly occurred to me that I felt totally estranged from God. Nothing particular had "happened" to make me feel this way - I just couldn't remember the last time we had spoken. It was a horrible feeling. I had talked about God, read the Bible and prayed with my women's group. But I had been busy, racing through my morning devotions. I had not just sat and talked to Jesus (or listened in case he had anything to say to me).

Once I realized the problem, I knew I needed to sit down and reconnect. But it was hard to break the ice. I knew I needed to talk with God. But I didn't quite know where to start. (Funny how quickly that can happen.)