Absolutely. Prayer, for example, is big (I'll touch on meditation below). However, I have to go back to my previous point that prayer is a big part of the Christian life, whether you lost in the woods or not. It isn't really a special ceremony or rite, it is simply an ongoing, daily conversation with God (you often hear people refer to Christianity as a relationship, not a religion - this is an example why). So, of course, prayer is going to happen in emergency scenarios, but it isn't really something that would need to be listed on an SOP card either. So, yes, I do draw strength and peace from prayer when life hits its rough spots, but it is also really a part of who I am, not something I pull out only when I'm in trouble.

Going back to my physical training metephor, the cardio-vascular endurance I've developed will help me if I need to take a longer than planned hike, but I don't need to really do anything special for it to come into play in an emergency. Likewise, I expect my spirituality (including prayer life) to help if I'm lost in the wilderness, but I don't really need to do any special rite for it to come into play; it is simply a part of who I am.

Hopefully that makes some sense?


There definately is meditation in Christianity, and it is widely practised, but traditional Christian meditation is different than what many nowadays associate the term with. For the sake of simplicity, I'll quote Wikipedia:

Christian meditation is a form of prayer in which a structured attempt is made to get in touch with and deliberately reflect upon the revelations of God. The word meditation comes from the Latin word meditari, which has a range of meanings including to reflect on, to study and to practice. Christian meditation is the process of deliberately focusing on specific thoughts (such as a bible passage) and reflecting on their meaning in the context of the love of God ... Teachings in both the Eastern and Western Christian churches have emphasized the use of Christian meditation as an element in increasing one's knowledge of Christ.

So, while many associate the term meditation with an emptying of the mind, traditional Christian meditation is the opposite. One way to implement this in a survival scenario would be to meditate upon certain promises or attributes of God. As an aide to this, one could keep certain Bible verses in your kit or on your person that you can reflect on in an emergency (this is a technique Bear Grylls mentioned in his book). I could see this being used during the STOP phase of an emergency, or any other time when there is a bit of down-time.