The Ship

 A good analogy for prayer experience is to think of yourself on a ship going somewhere across an ocean.  The ocean is prayer.  Somedays, it is all tranquil, still and silent.  You sit in your boat and just be at rest.  Where you are going is no longer important.  You just be in the moment.  But other times, everything is stormy, windy, rocky and turbulent.  You feel that God has abandoned you.  Your life seems to be a mess, but you are still on the ocean.  The ocean is prayer and sometimes it is turbulent and sometimes it is peaceful and everything in between.  But you are always on the ocean.  When at peace you want to stay in the peace and when turbulent you want to land, and get away, which would be to abandon prayer.  Never equate your enthusiasm with God’s presence.  In difficult, stormy times, I think that God is testing my patience.  Patience is one of my weak points.  It seems that God knows this.