As a teenager, I began carrying a notebook. It was part of a plan to improve my communication with Heaven. During the day, I’d note things, good and bad, to remember in my ponderings and prayers. It became an agenda for my most important conversation of the day.

For me, prayer, pondering and meditation are exercises in penetrating the veil. I labor at the veil to hear, see and feel. My notebook helped me focus and encouraged me to write what I received. It helped me receive more. 

Spiritual gifts require patience and practice. A person with an athletic or musical gift must practice thousands of hours to take the field or play in the orchestra. The same is true for spiritual gifts. They don’t fall upon us perfected and ready to be exercised without effort or practice. My notebook was a form of practice.

After more than a decade of using my notebook, I learned about an early American folk practice of using prayer rods. Historical documents are vague but using prayer rods may go all the way back to the rods used by Jacob, Moses and Aaron. One might use a rod in prayer by holding it vertically, asking a question, and releasing it. If the rod fell one direction, the answer was yes; if it fell the other direction, the answer was no.

I found the idea intriguing and made it a matter of prayer. Kneeling at my desk, I heard a voice instruct me to get up and write. I sat at my desk, opened my notebook, and grabbed the gold Cross pen I kept nearby. The voice said, “I have answered your prayers. I have given you a gift. You have a rod in your hand by which you receive answers to your prayers. Neglect not your gift.”

As I wrote, I failed to appreciate the message. Then I paused and looked at that precious little rod in my hand. I had to smile. I’d been receiving coherent messages in sentences for years and got distracted by the thought of a yes/no prayer rod. Our Creator is kind and has a sense of humor.

Don’t get distracted by what you think you want and miss the blessings you already have. What brings you truth? What is your prayer rod?

Addendum:

Immediately after posting the first version of this message on social media, I saw a live post of Scott Wright playing his flute. He paused to explain how the Divine flowed through him and out into the universe as he played. “His flute is his prayer rod,” I thought. In a text, he agreed and provided this picture to share.

Is your prayer rod a flute, a camera, a crystal, a sacred text, a sacred space, a warm confirmation flowing through you as you serve others or labor to recover your own soul from the philosophies of men, or is it something uniquely designed for you? Find your rod. Use it.