Dr. Michael Ryce is the director of an institute which is charged with the translation of the oldest known copy of the New Testament, directly from the ancient Aramaic into English. One of the most powerful concepts I have heard him speak about is the definition of the word prayer. From the ancient Aramaic one interpretation of the meaning of “prayer” is, “to set a trap for God”. This does not make much sense in our western way of looking at things, but in the ancient world, God was understood to be the energy of creation, or Love. If God is thought of as energy then it makes sense for me to “tune” myself to be able to receive and express that energy.

In this way I may think of myself as having the ability to tune myself to certain thoughts and energies, much like a radio can be tuned to different frequencies of radio waves which are always there and available for reception. In my mind/body energy system I can think of my spiritual faculty of Choice as the tuning mechanism. I can make conscious choices to “tune” my thoughts to Love, and the thoughts and behaviors which are compatible with that energy of Love. I can choose to engage in behaviors and interactions with people that express that energy of Love and extend that Love in every relationship I have with every person and everything in my life. When I choose to do this, I set myself up to receive the energy of Love, or God, much the same way that I would tune a radio to receive the signal of my favorite station.

I would like to echo Dr. Ryce’s call to all of us to make a choice for Love, to choose the thoughts and behaviors which reflect and extend the energy of Love that we are made of. In this way it is possible to make one’s life a prayer, by choosing to “tune” ourselves to the energy of Love and God and in that way, to “set a trap for God”.

We come from Love, we are made of Love, we are Love. Everything else is false.