A Christian life is a prayerful life. It must be this way. I'm seeing this now in the most explicit ways. We have the example of our Master. Luke 6:12 says, "Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." Jesus had a big decision to make in choosing the 12 apostles so he spent all night seeking His Father s counsel.

A friend of mine once said, "Well I'm not even worth Jesus' little toe so I can't be as prayerful as Him." But the reverse is true; we need to pray more, much more. OK, 36 hours straight in prayer might be an exaggeration, but if the Messiah Himself needed this kind of communication then we must follow His example.

Some say, "Well prayer comes in many forms. For example, when I'm volunteering to help the poor, this is a form of prayer." Yes and no. Yes, it can bring glory to God and help us understand Him better, but it's not the same. I can tell my son that we are going to spend the morning together and while he plays with his cars on the floor, I work with my computer. We are together right? I m not doing anything bad, right? Wrong. What I really need to do is get down on the floor with my son, grab a car and say, "Vrooooooom!"

That's what real prayer is -- complete attention, interaction and immersion. The Lord wants an intimate relationship with us. To put it simply, time dedicated specifically to listening and speaking to God.

And we turn to Him, in moments of doubt and fear especially. The non-believer might even do this in times of extreme hardship perhaps leading to a conversion experience. We turn to the Lord for guidance and comfort. But what about when things are going well? When the bills are paid and no major turmoil exists in our lives, do we still seek His face with the same fervor? We should. It s hard, but we can't let our guard down. It is exactly in these moments when the enemy will look to trap us. It happened like this with David and his transgression with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). The flesh rejects prayer, but we must make a persistent effort to maintain fellowship with the Father.

And now I find myself in a situation where prayer is all I've got. When I left the USA to come to Argentina, I was following His Word revealed to me. My ministry is in my family, my writing, coordinating Bible studies, and at my kids school. And the pressure is intense as I depend upon His providence. But I keep going on faith with prayer as my fuel. Then suddenly the heat gets turned up.

Yesterday, I went with my brother-in-law to talk to a priest friend of ours that expressed interest in the Bible study. He is a godly man who during the Argentine economic crisis of 2001 transformed his parish into a strong source of spiritual and material feeding (50% of the population fell under poverty at the time). He then transferred to his current parish, located in a near slum-like neighborhood, where things weren t working well. It was slow going and strange at first, so he did some digging. And he found a nest of serpents.

Many of the people, in places of authority, were involved in a ring of sexual predators who were abusing disabled children. This problem extended to school directors, catechism teachers, and parish leaders. No clergy has been implicated. This all came to light when the daughter of an abuser went to the police then everything began to unravel. Our priest friend had his life threatened by one of the alleged perpetrators; this all in a community where paco (the Buenos Aires version of crack cocaine) is already a huge problem. We all know these problems exist, but when someone close to you is living it, it hits home. Our friend lives in the neighborhood alone - he has support from the diocese, but as always the harvest is abundant and the workers few.

So there I was, hearing all of this, trying to understand why the Lord had shown me this problem so close up. Does he want me to get involved? Then the specter of fear arises. If these people are willing to commit such atrocities under the guise of religious folk, what would stop them from doing harm to me? Or even worse, to my children? How real is my faith?

And so prayer is my lifeblood. I almost need to be in constant prayer to figure all this out. Why now, oh Lord, in a moment of trials for me and my family, would you show me this? And our Savior gave me a tough answer. Really tough.

"Are you not willing to consider My abandoned sheep? Those poor sheep who knew nothing more than to trust, because being disabled, they had no other option but to trust? Are you not willing to give something to them, in the very least share My Word with their community to give them comfort amidst the hell that they have been forced to live upon this earth? Do you only reach out to Me in prayer and thanksgiving when I am active in your context, plans and desires? Do you think that I was not concerned for my disciples safety in the trials they would have to face? What have you learned from Me of MERCY? What have you learned from Me of FAITH?"

Tough words, Lord. And before I could take a breath...

"And of those who committed those vile acts against the most vulnerable and weak? And the violators? Do you not know that I MUST LOVE EVEN THEM? Especially them. I died especially for them. Have you not learned anything yet? How great is MY LOVE that it goes beyond all reason and proof and ideals? It goes beyond all wisdom that you think you might have acquired over these years searching for Me. Come to MY CROSS and behold what I have done for them. For all of them. FOLLOW ME."

I'm not saying that the Lord wants to put me or my family in the line of fire. But only in prayer will I receive an answer. Only in prayer do we begin to understand even a fraction of His love. Only in prayer do we receive the plenitude of His grace. Only in prayer do we know His will.

Grace to you,
Vincent H Chough