My job as an international management consultant allows me
to work with people from many cultures around the world. And, by working with these people, I am able
to develop relationships that go deeper than the two-dimensional images we
typically see of foreign cultures. On occasion, I also get a glimpse of how individuals
and societies are able to incorporate their faith into daily life. I am often struck, at these moments, about
how much we have to learn about life balance from them.
For example, the Muslim faith calls people to pray five times a day. It is an immensely powerful feeling to hear the call to prayer at dawn every morning from the various mosques and minarets scattered throughout every village and city in the Middle East. Some mornings, I wish the call came a little after dawn, say around 10 am so I could sleep! Nevertheless, the call is an important reminder to begin our day with God. The call, even in a language I do not understand, is the first voice I hear to pull me from sleep.
The call to prayer effectively calls me into the day - to start the search for life balance with God, front and center - and that is not a bad way to start. While on a recent trip to Egypt, I was fortunate to record a video of a colleague, a Muslim woman, who was happy to share her perspective on faith. You can see this video in our Video Library. She spoke of the psychological aspects of prayer. In other words, in addition to the benefits of communicating with God on a regular basis, the calls to prayer force people to take a break from the chaos of life.
Regular, scheduled prayer forces people to schedule God into their daily schedule. This does not mean that everyone goes to Mosque to pray en masse, as we often see on television. Instead, during the work day, for example, people will quietly close the door to their office, or go to a room designated for prayer, or sometimes simply lay a small piece of carpet in a hallway. Then, they will devote themselves to God.
This act, as my colleague pointed out, helps to put our lives in perspective. As she says in one of the videos, "Our lives are a chaos." Prayer helps to ground us in God amid the chaos. And that perspective helps to maintain some level of life balance.
For example, the Muslim faith calls people to pray five times a day. It is an immensely powerful feeling to hear the call to prayer at dawn every morning from the various mosques and minarets scattered throughout every village and city in the Middle East. Some mornings, I wish the call came a little after dawn, say around 10 am so I could sleep! Nevertheless, the call is an important reminder to begin our day with God. The call, even in a language I do not understand, is the first voice I hear to pull me from sleep.
The call to prayer effectively calls me into the day - to start the search for life balance with God, front and center - and that is not a bad way to start. While on a recent trip to Egypt, I was fortunate to record a video of a colleague, a Muslim woman, who was happy to share her perspective on faith. You can see this video in our Video Library. She spoke of the psychological aspects of prayer. In other words, in addition to the benefits of communicating with God on a regular basis, the calls to prayer force people to take a break from the chaos of life.
Regular, scheduled prayer forces people to schedule God into their daily schedule. This does not mean that everyone goes to Mosque to pray en masse, as we often see on television. Instead, during the work day, for example, people will quietly close the door to their office, or go to a room designated for prayer, or sometimes simply lay a small piece of carpet in a hallway. Then, they will devote themselves to God.
This act, as my colleague pointed out, helps to put our lives in perspective. As she says in one of the videos, "Our lives are a chaos." Prayer helps to ground us in God amid the chaos. And that perspective helps to maintain some level of life balance.
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