Health, career, academics, family, housing, crises, addictions: these are the usual items we mention at prayer meets. There are some things you don't pray for, period, let alone do so in public, in a group.

I mean, when was the last time you told a friend, Please pray for my...:

• credit card - it's the third time it's been frauded, very troublesome informing my regular payees, (re)signing and faxing docs, etc.
• broadband - I need one at home to help me download study materials
• split hairs
• social skills
• book shelf - I need to get one before my kid does a Picasso (or, given the times, a Da Vinci) on my hundred-dollar Amazon purchases
• pride - I really think I'm the best in my department, can't help fantasizing about being given accolades and awards every now and then, can't help feeling cheated when some other dude gets the unexpected kudos
• mattress - it's a breeding ground for bed bugs (even if they don't bite you, which is rare, they still explode into many tiny black blotches on your bed you wonder if your Mont Blanc was leaking)"
• time/motivation
  • to clear my store room, it looks like a flea market now
  • to hit the gym again
  • to get new shoes
  • to clean the fridge

You get the picture, :)

Praying the ordinary, the mundane, the little too embarassing to bring up, was the starter for the Back-to-Basics (B2B) class I'm privileged to facilitate with my young adults' group in Luther House Chapel.

Maybe somehow we've been ingrained with the idea that God only listens to "important-enough-to-be-announced" prayers. Maybe we find it stupid, a waste of time. But tell this to a father whose daughter keeps nudging him to sleep a bit more to the side so she can sleep closer next to him. Or to a mother whose son is wailing because he can't find his beloved red tumbler.

It's not about triviality. It's about intimacy. In this case, ours with God.

Your prayer that mountains be moved is likely more effective only after you're used to praying that your 10-year old car can move fine after a long drive (or a cold night).

Your prayer special doctor-dazzling healing will come more naturally only after you've been praying for the grace to do things like clean the corners of your ceiling (especially if you don't have a ladder, don't intend to buy one and don't feel comfortable asking a buddy).

You'd feel more at home praying for spiritual conversions when you've done the time of praying that currency conversions don't hit your overseas credit payments too hard.

Because if you don't pray for the banal which can occupy up to 70-80% of your daily experience, no one else will. God is as much the God of the average and the awkward as He is of the awesome.

Action-Steps:
1. List down 5 prayer requests you would NEVER mention to your "good Christian friend" (not as prayer targets, anyway) let alone allow to be published in your weekly church mag. Pray for these items and keep track of "what happens".