To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in You I trust. Psalm 25:1-2a
To think about God is to pray. I say this with a particular definition of “thinking” in mind. I am not talking about intellectually engaging with God as a subject to be mastered or a problem to be solved. Instead, I am speaking about when our attention in life includes an awareness of God . . . this is prayer.
Sometimes this is happening without us realizing we are praying. When our thoughts take in and include God, that is, regarding what is true, good, and beautiful, we are lifting ourselves “up” to God. Our existence in this moment has been elevated by noticing the transcendent, and we are communing with the serene infinite Goodness.
Our heart-felt mindfulness about a higher reality is, in some way, an appeal to the One who is beyond all being and is the relational source of all things. Even if we make no requests, the posture of being in the presence of this Truth and Beauty is inherently a petition, a request to enjoy and become “lost” in what envelopes us.
All good and true theology (God-talk) is prayer and prayerful. When theology is prayerful, then we are engaging with God in a personal, immediate, urgent, and life-shaping way. Rather than simply an academic exercise, this pondering is where we find renewed life in the wonder of the Beautiful.
When the Psalmist speaks of “lifting up the soul”, he refers to our whole living being: mind, heart, body, experiences, fears, joys, and every desire. Even if we were to try and conceal anything, the attempt is pointless. All is always lifted up to the Lord anyway. We are lifted up all the time to God, but only sometimes do we intentionally acknowledge and participate in this, when our awareness aligns with the reality that we are always before God. In this sense, we do not lift ourselves up to God, but instead become aware and intentional with respect to where we always are.
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. Psalm 139:7-8.
To turn our attention, pour out our emotions, or lay open what we are experiencing toward the love that is God, are ways in which we are “lifting up” ourselves to the Lord. The omnipresent God cannot be but present, a truth sometimes we forget.
To raise ourselves up to God is the essence of prayer. Considering ourselves in the larger frame of what is, has meaning, and bears the weight of our lives, is prayer. To be wordlessly mindful of God is prayer, encompassing both petition and confession in its most raw form.
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