Blogs - Chief of Pray Blog

Food, Friends, and Fulfillment: The Secret Sauce

I’m searching for the secret sauce. Like a great chef— I’m trying to find the recipe that will keep my guests coming back for more. I thought about it again last night. We were at Ron of Japan for dinner. When you order the Crown dinner (and who doesn’t?) you get a shrimp appetizer with a gooey egg topping that is the BEST SAUCE EVER! The combination of flavor and texture is perfectly blended. Those few tasty morsels keep me from going to Benihana, Rokbonki, or any other Japanese steak house.

I love food and I’m one of those people who lives to eat, rather than eats to live. I am also into another type of nourishment, the spiritual kind— prayer. Just as there are many ways to enjoy food, there are equally as many ways to enjoy prayer. I’m trying to find the secret sauce for a delicious prayer life.

Something very big is going on with worship and the Internet. For me, it started when I got my iPhone. I realized that portable prayer is a great way to add more pray to my day. I wanted to share my joy and started www.Prayables.com. Who’d of thought, 3G and 3w’s could improve so many lives? Like a cook in the kitchen who tweaks a recipe, I tweak interactive media to find the perfect secret sauce for online prayer.

We’re working on new and different ways to bring our prayer community to more women. Ustream is one great option, and Blog Talk Radio is another, but even with all of the technology available to do almost everything virtual, nothing replaces the warm interaction of being with a real live person.

I was talking to my cousin Gerry about how my synagogue, BJBE, recently started streaming live High Holiday worship services and Sabbath services.  There’s some folks in our congregation, who are aging or no longer living in the area, and are unable to get to synagogue. Gerry thought it was a bad business decision that would affect the bottom line. He figured if anybody could pray for free, no one would support the synagogue with membership dues. Gerry doesn’t understand what it means to be part of a spiritual community. He hasn’t experienced the camaraderie and friendship of a congregational family.

When I go to synagogue to pray, I am made to feel welcome. Everyone I meet seems to be in a perpetual great mood and they’re truly happy to see me. And vice-versa. We “good morning” each other to pieces! When you’re getting ready for God talk, there’s a tendency to be extremely cheerful. One regular worshipper told me that being with his daily prayer group is like being back in his college fraternity— his brothers “have his back.” He feels safe, loved, and understood. In order to find the secret sauce for the ultimate prayer experience, the same three principles are needed. Take one part relationship, add two parts love, and mix in three parts of understanding.

They're the ones that I can count on,
sure as the beads on an abacus.
It is miraculous to me
how You fit them into my life:
the childhood friend,
the college roommate,
the confidante,
the sisters by birth
and by marriage.
Treasures, all...
a profusion much greater
than one woman deserves.
Thank You for the bonds
forged by women's hearts,
for tangible evidence
of Your enduring love.
Knowing You could not
be present in flesh,
You sent me those
who can and are.

-Lori Strawn