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Let’s see. I have one, two, three, four, five, six, no, make that seven books on prayer standing on the bookshelves in my office. And those are just the one’s that deal specifically with prayer, not the ones that include prayer along with some other topics or practices. You’d think that a pastor with that many books on prayer would be a great prayer, wouldn’t you? Well, I hate to disappoint you but I’m not.

I guess I have the mistaken notion that I’m supposed to measure up to John Wesley, the man you can trace our church roots back to. He was up at 4 in the morning for prayer and devotions; he read the Bible in the original Hebrew and Greek while riding horseback; he fasted two days a week; preached untold number of sermons; led covenant discipleship groups; leaped tall buildings in a single bound! No, I don’t measure up.

It’s been a hard thing to give up the idea that I’m not Super-Pastor, not even Super-Christian. It’s hard but not impossible. It’s just a matter of accepting myself as I am, right where I am. And where I am right now is renewing a sense of being intentional about my praying.

I’ve known folks who were or are Super-Pastors, even Super-Christians and something they all seem to have in common is being intentional in their praying. One person I know goes out to his workshop and pulls up two 5-gallon buckets, then he sits on one and invites Jesus to sit on the other; and they talk. Another sits quietly and meditates using the Jesus Prayer as his mantra. With each breath in he says, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” and with each breath out he says, “Have mercy on me a sinner.” Sometimes he changes it up and uses “The Lord is my shepherd” and “I have all I need.” There are any number of ways to pray and I’m sure God has one or two that will work for you.

Let me tell you what I’ve started doing lately in an effort to be more intentional about my praying. Quite by accident I set the chime on my watch to go off at the top of every hour. So now whenever I hear my watch chime I turn my attention to God and say a brief prayer for my wife, our children, and myself. I also include any other concerns that are on my heart and mind at the moment. So I might be driving home from dropping the kids off at school and I hear “beep, beep” and my attention turns to God with a short little prayer. I might be in a meeting or at lunch, “beep, beep” up goes another prayer.

Oh, there it goes “beep, beep” time for a little prayer even as I write this column. Don’t expect a book from me about this, there’s plenty of books on prayer already out there. Besides, you’ve just read about all I have to write about it.

The Rev. David King is pastor at John Wesley United.