Is “Praying Without Ceasing” a Good Thing or Would we Rather Pass?

Our old and elder brother Paul made quite a mark of our faith.  But accepting what he requires is at least tough and sometimes seems impossible.

Take what he wrote to the Thessalonians.  (1 Thessalonians 5:16-23, KJV)

Rejoice evermore.

Pray without ceasing.

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Quench not the Spirit.

Despise not prophesyings.

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

Abstain from all appearance of evil.

Powerful words.  Wise words.  Even words which can be restated in modern political terms:  I read “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” as being Paul telling us to Trust but verify.

But it’s the “Pray without ceasing” thing that bugs me. 

We are called upon to do many things which have nothing to do with prayer.  We must take care of our families, pursue our usual vocations, have a bit of fun, and even serve the church.  If you’re on a ladder putting up the Easter decorations and your mind is on a particularly good prayer, someone may need to call 911 when you fall.   If you are a teacher of algebra in high school, lapsing into prayer might make it difficult to tell students how to solve quadratic equation.

How can we “pray without ceasing”?  Was Paul after all the Master of Hyperbole?  We read that he made his way by working leather into useful objects.  Surely, he didn’t pray that the knife would cut just so and that the laces would be perfectly straight, so that the buyer would pay a fair price.  Was he really praying?

I wasn’t there, so far be it from me to KNOW exactly what Paul was talking about.  I keep looking for a bright light in the sky on my way to Long Beach.  (Damascus is too far.)  But, no – Just the red lights in front of you in traffic on the 405.  Pray?  No chance, I’ll hit the lights. 

If we look at “praying” as we have been taught, Paul has set up an impossible task.

That’s odd.  He was remarkably successful at setting up Christ’s church.  Silly or impossible advice doesn’t seem his style.

Might WE be getting the message wrong?  Might our definition of “praying” be the wrong one.

Let’s get this straight:   Pray where the pastor might intone “Let us pray,” and where you bow your head, fold your hands,  maybe even kneel, start out with “Oh, God . . .,” “Father . . .,” “Jesus . . .,” or the like, praise things, ask for things and end with “Amen,” right?   And then be back to business, am I right?

If that’s praying, Paul was wrong.

But let’s make room in our mind that Paul meant something else.  What else might the limits of “pray” be? 

Well?

How about everything, every word that comes out of our mouths, our pens, our computers, every action what we do, 24/7/365?  If that’s so, we humans are in SERIOUS need to be improving our prayers.

We do refer to God frequently, by name.  Sometimes, we tell ourselves “Praise God.”  Sounds like a prayer.   What about when we accidentally hit our thumb with a hammer?  We hear the word God loud and clear, then, often with a request that He take drastic action against some person or thing.  Of course, when we do that, I think we’re asking the wrong deity: God is the BLESSING one.

Are our thoughts prayers?  Does God hear our thoughts?  We believe he does.  We walk through a grocery store line.  The couple in front of us comes from one country and the couple behind us comes from another, and each is talking in a language we don’t understand.  What do we tell our Lord about what we think?  “Praise you for spreading your word!”  “Darn foreigners.”  If everything you say is a prayer, maybe you just sent to your God a really lousy prayer. 

How many other lousy prayers to we utter?

“You’re disgusting.”

“Did you hear about the farmer’s daughter and the salesman?”

“Wanna do some ice?”

“Screw ‘em.”

Maybe we need to reflect a little. 

At least Paul doesn’t have to tell us how to that.  Matthew does: First, remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.  Matthew 7:5.

Mizpah.

Justice Meets Impeachment; What Else is New?

Justice. We are very intent on seeking justice. In criminal cases, we seek justice. In civil cases, we seek justice. In political cases or disputes, we seek justice.



But we want justice only as we define it. And that means it’s justice if our side wins.



That’s not a weakness or unexpected in human behavior. But it does give us a heaping helping of hypocrisy.



What do we want? To win. Also, to have others recognize that our position is the right one and the only “just” one. Then, we can identify everybody contrary to our position as unreasonable, stupid, unjust, and our enemies. It’s comfortable to have friends. But it is oh-so-more enriching to have enemies. Your friend may turn on you.  If you already have decided that someone is your enemy, you are free to ignore them, curse them, and go home feeling all tingly that you are in the right. 




Our system is fixed against justice. A judge’s belief in what is “right” affects justice a lot more than any jury’s verdict. Usually, the judge is right. But I have to remember, that is a value judgment based on my personal beliefs.  Most judges I know are honorable and RIGHT.  But it’s possible that I’m wrong and I either don’t know it or I’m not willing to acknowledge that.



There’s what I'm arguing: The willingness to make room in your mind that you might be wrong.



We attack public opinion, which, after all, is where juries come from. We want them to adopt our beliefs. A substantial number are neither traditionally conservative nor liberal and they are particularly rich targets. After all, if we can get them on our side, we have done them a favor. It’s like a religious conversion to the truth. Or whatever we accept as our truth.  After all, everybody else is wrong.



Trial lawyers are taught to attempt to sway the opinions of a jury from the jury selection. And we’re trained pretty well. That’s what makes a winning trial lawyer in a close case.



Everybody attempts to sway the opinions of the public. FoxNews, CNN, the New York Times, and some staggering number of others want to show everyone The Way to Think.  They lure them in and then give them oodles of confirmation-bias-talking-points so that they can become agents of belief modification.



Those who want to sway beliefs are not bad Americans. They are just human Americans.  

Oh, I know, that anybody who does not believe as you do is a bad American.  Sorry.  My bad. Everybody believes in their own righteousness and justice.



The impeachment is the same old story. Had the House of Representatives voted at the very start, it would have voted to impeach Pres. Trump. The vote would have been the same as the end vote, within three votes one way or the other. The “jurors” in any political culture have already decided what they already truly believe.  The House voted accordingly. Confirmation bias was a huge joke on both sides.  It wasn’t a debate; it was performance art.



If the Senate were to vote today, they would vote the same as they will a month from now. It is unlikely that anybody will call for a Senate vote now. For other than three (or so) senators, nobody is going to change their already-made-up minds. We could give every senator a polygraph and we would find that they sincerely believe what they have already decided. But the TV cameras will be on, and every senator wants an opportunity to piously explain how they have reached a totally fair opinion.



We will all love to piously explain our views. Hell, I love it. But when I do, I try to remember – often unsuccessfully - that I might be wrong.



So sally on, Congress. Sally on Democrats, Republicans, Independents-in-name-only, the press, the deep state, the shallow state, the neither-deep-nor-shallow state. Jesus, Odin and the Great Pumpkin are rooting for you.  After all, you’re right.  



Mizpah.