Remember awe? Was it that magnificent view of a snow-capped mountain range? Perhaps you've felt a sense of awe while holding a newborn baby. How about that time when an unexpected event took place that mightily impacted your life’s trajectory? Or you could be a “thinker” experiencing an epiphany.

I’m in Walmart.  Everyone looks so hopeless.  Eyes are looking at the floor.  Elbows down on the shopping cart and bodies leaning over.  The carts are creaking under the weight of it.  

Blank facial expressions all around.  Even the children.  I catch myself thinking that these parents are killing their children and don’t even know it.  Maybe that thought is a bit strong.

We have suddenly been given temporary custody of a large and powerful Doberman Pinscher.  He is tall enough to give me a nose poke in the arm over the top of the arm of my armchair.  He does this poking when he needs to go out.  Or when he wants me to think he needs to go out, even if he doesn’t need to, but wants to.  This would be the male dog manipulating the alpha male.  Being king around here is an illusion.

My favorite time to talk to God is when I’m riding my gravel bike on one of the many dirt roads that define the 1-mile grids of the Thumb of Michigan.  There are no cars, no people, and no distractions.  Just pedal the bike, shift the gears to keep that perfect cadence while riding up and down the occasional gentle hill.  It’s my perfect time to look up across the farmland and discuss things with God.

My friend Nate says he prays best when alone in the wood shop, making something beautiful from a tree.  I’ve heard friends say they like to pray when they have to drive somewhere or while mowing the lawn.