***
In 1975, Cardinal Van Thuan, then the Archbishop of Hanoi, Vietnam, was arrested by the Communist government.
He spent the next 13 years in prison – 9 of them in solitary confinement. In his memoir, Five Loaves and Two Fish, Van Thuan says he was nearly driven to insanity.
He was in the prime of his life. He had been a bishop for 8 years, he was building schools and churches, and training young men to become priests.
But in an instant, everything was taken away.
***
From his prison cell, Van Thuan could hear the bells of his cathedral ring in the morning, and the waves of the ocean crash along the beach at night.
His ministry was just beyond his reach.
***
But those 13 years alone taught him an important lesson: We must seek the Lord in prayer before we do his work.
As Van Thuan wrote, “God wants me here and nowhere else.”
Here in this cell. Here in prayer.
***
The same is true for us.
The Lord wants us here – beginning our day in prayer – before we do anything else.