Praying

Have you ever prayed and not realized it?

At some point in my life I understood that folded hands and closed eyes were not essential to God hearing me. I know now, having kids, that those are great habits to keep from being distracted. I still remember praying in the car as a kid with my family and thinking how cool it was to be Dad, because he got to keep his eyes open. So I grew up with a habit (good for beginning) and have thought alot about prayer/praying lately. The scripture that will not leave me alone is "pray without ceasing". I'm sure the commentaries have much to say about this (haven't read them so I'm not debating) but I think it wouldn't be there if it weren't possible. Oh yeah, just had a memory of a guy from my childhood church (I was 11-19 yrs old) who would slip into KJV language when praying in public (I'm guessing in private, too). I know plenty of people who revert to their mother tounge because it's their "heart language", but switching to a "prayer language"? Now that I say it like that, I hear a vocabulary from some people that only comes out in public prayer- when's the last time I heard "bestow" anywhere except a prayer? I digress...

So I say it must be possible to pray without ceasing (we're not told to do anything impossible-with Christ all things are possible) And if this is the premise, it requires changing perceptions, definitions, or expectations about praying. To pray:
do I have to stop all other activity?
can i pray while driving? while walking? while talking? while thinking about something else?

Maybe because of our human experience and call waiting, we think that we have to put one conversation on hold before beginning another. God, however, can and does hear millions (billions?) of people at the same time. And He hears us think. No need to be vocal. He knows nothing of call waiting. He can read my mind. This is either terrifying or comforting.

My mental image of praying non-stop is a continuous conversation in our head that includes God in the loop. We always have a thought stream going, even when we're daydreaming. When we choose to close the loop and not let God in, we are in a dysfunctional, independant, not-what-we-were-made-to-do place. This is our history, this is our natural bent-to be self-legislating and independant. We were created for connection though and when we are connected, we know this is where we belong.

There is also some human or western tendancy to seperate prayer from everyday conversation. At a family dinner, I'll actually interrupt a good conversation to "pray" because the food is getting cold, hoping that the conversation will pick back up again when I'm done. I know that it's OK to start praying without eating but I also know that when you let something slip, then enemy would be more than happy to just let it dissappear. What about this: we sit down and the conversation starts and we talk about God and thank Him with our eyes open to each other and carry on the conversation about God/to God? I would love to blur the line and include talking to God and about God in regular conversations.

Another related thought:
Jonah 2 quotes Jonahs prayer inside the fish- Jonah talks about talking to God in his prayer. That wouldn't fit inside my previous prayer box but there it is. How can you be talking to someone when you're talking about them? This is God we're talking about, not just anyone. God considered it a prayer when Jonah was talking about God.