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.
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