Monday, January 6, 2003

Alma 34:26

"But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness."
Alma 34:26


The closet thing reminds me of one day when I was living in Utah.  My boyfriend came over one night about 9pm and we had been talking for about an hour when my roommate burst out of the front closet in her nightgown and ran into her room.  We were baffled.  Later, I asked her about it and she told me that she liked to pray in the closet because of this scripture.  :)
I like the literal interpretation as well... when and where to pray, but it probably goes beyond the literal.  Basically it means we should pray everywhere, all the time, right? :)
The wording here is interesting, because the writer hastens to include closets, secret places, and wilderness.  Closets... because they are private, or because they are where we hide things?  Secret places... perhaps to remind us that no place is secret from the Lord, or maybe because the Lord wants to share the intimate setting of your favorite place.  And the most interesting to me is our wilderness... because in a symbolic sense we are all lost in a wilderness of sorts.  Perhaps the same one in Lehi's dream... perhaps we each have a wilderness of our own.  Praying will help us to find our way... and ourselves perhaps.  In another sense, wilderness is wild, untamed nature... where we go to escape the world.  Maybe God is letting us know that we don't need to escape him, that he shares that escape and wonder with us.  Or maybe all of the above. :)   Let's remember to share our lives with God today.  Whatever shape they are in, they will be better after a good talk with Him.

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