Bring your own
folding camp chair. You don't want to be disrespectful and sit on someone's gravestone. I guess they call them headstones now. Since I'm a Jesus-follower I look for a grave site with more of a Jesus theme. If sitting is just too lethargic or maybe the
mosquitoes are dive bombing your face, I say go for a brisk walk. Late at night it can be a little freaky and possibly even against the rules. For walks and runs I'd stay on the roads and trails that tend to
zigzag through the property. You don't want to
accidentally kick over a gravestone or something because you're really getting into your prayer connect with God at any given moment. I personally have a tendency to lean into the dramatic so I enjoy the finality and the all-or-nothing reminders that graveyards bring into my prayers. Pray for the big picture of your life and the families and friends of those buried nearby. I'm too protestant to pray for
saints to speak on my behalf in the throne room of God. I have friends smarter than me who pray for saints to put in a good word for them. The phrase "pray to saints" gets weird for me when you replace it with "pray to dead people." If the people were alive and walking around the
graveyard I'd have no problem asking them to pray for me.
The Christian Bible talks about a
cloud of witnesses made up of those who have gone before us. I love the imagery. Maybe some are angels. Maybe some are people who have already lived their lives.
Hebrews 12:1-2
English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
I used to be a long-distance runner and some of my favorite running workouts were through the City Park Graveyard in Fort Collins, CO. In fact we used to call a specific 6-mile loop from the Colorado State Campus "The Graveyard Run".
See the little bird. A few moments after shooting this photo with my phone I ran into an
owl as big as a basketball perched on a gravestone. He's the one who got away because after entering the password on my phone he decided to open his 4 foot wingspan and make me wonder what exactly it is that I just saw.
