My entire life I've struggled with what prayer does. But when I ask for prayers I'm asking "Will you hear and see this need and plan to spend some of your time remembering it? Even after this moment passes? Will you join me as I wait for answers and let me know I'm not alone?"

I use to "pray right now" when someone asked for prayer. Pray. Check it off. Done. I had uttered words into the atmosphere. It was in the hands of the divine now. And while symbolically releasing worries into the air has benefits, I don't think it connects me to my neighbor.

At the end of the day I think praying for and with others, or asking them to pray for us. Is about connecting us. Teaching us to love each other.

If I write your need down in a journal, commit to remembering it as long as the need lasts, I join you on this long and weary road.

If I am intentional about taking the time to pray for a friend's need. Week in, week out. Their need is close to my heart. I seek ways to encourage them, to meet their needs. To love them and tend their sorrows like I tend my own.

I am not good at this discipline. I would like to be better. I would like to try more.

And I'm thinking/tweeting about this because my life right now is prompting me to say, "I could use some prayer."