The Jesus Prayer

I've really enjoyed practicing different methods of "communicating with Jesus," if you will, at the beginning of lectures. Today we spent 5 minutes reciting the Jesus Prayer, which is various forms of "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner." Repeating it over and over without letting my mind wander was a challenge. But during this exercise, I had a flashback to Ethiopia. One night the General had taken another girl and me to see some hyenas. There was a garbage dump where the hyenas would come after dusk for food. We sat in his vehicle in the dark in complete silence waiting to see the notorious and iniquitous hyena make its approach. After about 45 minutes, without any sign of life, we wondered if our trip was going to be in vain. Then I turned to look behind the vehicle and there was a lone hyena lurking along the road. Now this was bizarre because 1) hyenas usually roam in packs and 2) it wasn't going towards to garbage pile. So during this flashback, I felt like God was using that experience to remind me to be cautious of the devil. We might think we're focused and guarding ourselves against evil, but what's happening in the periphery?

~ ...so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his intentions. ~ 2 Corinthians 2:11