Some scholars believe that the apostle Paul\u2019s first letter to the Thessalonians could be the earliest written text in the New Testament (52AD). In chapter 5 there is a curiously short verse which says, \u201cPray without ceasing.\u201d We all know the verse, and we all typically ignore it. I think we\u2019re missing out on something when we do. I\u2019m convinced constant prayer is not only possible, it is one of the best things about life with God. Anyone can do it & almost nobody does.<\/p>\n
One of the chief reasons I think we do not pray without ceasing is that we have such a narrow idea of what prayer actually is. For most of us prayer is where we talk, talk, talk to God \u2013 usually asking God for stuff: \u201cHelp this good thing happen, don\u2019t let this bad thing happen.\u201d That\u2019s what we think prayer is.<\/p>\n
The problem is, what do we do when it doesn\u2019t work? What do we do when we pray and we hear nothing, and nothing changes? Does that mean we don\u2019t have enough faith? Does God not care? Is God not very powerful? The way I was taught to pray was like that \u2013 just asking God for stuff. With that tack, God comes off like a temperamental vending machine: put your money in but you may or may not get what you asked for. If that\u2019s what prayer is, then I get why nobody can pray without ceasing, you know?<\/p>\n
What if God is everywhere and we just can\u2019t see him? What if the presence of God is continually dancing through our lives but we can\u2019t see it because we\u2019re focused on a bunch of other stuff? How much of God\u2019s activity is going on right beneath our noses and we simply never learned to recognize it?<\/p>\n
I believe that it is God great desire, communicated to us over and over in the Bible and traditions of the church, that we could live our lives mindful of the presence of God, and that his presence with us would make all the difference in our lives \u2026heal us, save us. If we would only wake up to the God who is always with us, then we might be more like Jacob after his dream about the ladder and the angels ascending and descending. We might find ourselves saying saying, \u201cSurely God was in the place and I didn\u2019t even know it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the first chapter of An Altar in the World<\/em> Barbara Brown Taylor riffs on the Jacob story and has this incredible line: \u201cWhat if God can drop a ladder anywhere.\u201d If God can drop a ladder anywhere in my life\u2026 just show up in the ordinary and the mundane, then I have a choice: will I choose to live in the awareness of God\u2019s presence, or will I ignore it. If I say yes to an awareness of God\u2019s presence, then I will begin embracing Paul\u2019s idea of praying without ceasing. This is what I think prayer looks like on the other side of this realization:<\/p>\n 1. Prayer isn\u2019t something I generate, it\u2019s something I join in progress.\u00a0<\/strong>Taylor says, \u201cThe longer I practice prayer, the more I think it is something that is always happening, like a radio wave that carries music through the air whether I tune into it or not. This is hard to talk about, which is why prayer is a practice and not a discussion topic.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. You can pray wherever, whenever, and however you want.\u00a0<\/strong>Anything done in the presence of God can become a means of prayer. Whatever you do as are mindful of God\u2019s presence is a kind of a prayer.<\/p>\n 3. Prayer isn\u2019t neat and tidy, it\u2019s unvarnished & raw.\u00a0<\/strong>We can\u2019t edit our lives, then go pray. God gets the director\u2019s cut of our lives. My best prayers typically begin with me saying, \u201cWhat in the world are you doing? Have you forgotten about us? Why don\u2019t you do something!\u201d God can take the profane words, the bitter attitude, and the disrespectful tone (if you don\u2019t believe me read the psalms of lament). What he can\u2019t tolerate is our fake and sentimental prayers.<\/p>\n 4. Prayer is where we begin telling the truth about our own lives.<\/strong> It\u2019s really hard to allow God to show up in our lives, when we can\u2019t even show up in our own lives\u2026 living in denial of our own junk. What if the whole reason God says that he will never leave us is so that we\u2019ll have the courage to be ourselves\u2026 to acknowledge our own brokenness, hang-ups, our insecurities\u2026 anxieties, pain, fear, shame. Prayer is where we begin to learn how to do this\u2026 Once we confess things to God, it becomes much easier to be honest with others, too.<\/p>\n Let me just say that I believe in you. You can pray. You don\u2019t have to be religious or pious. You just have to be yourself, present in the moment, mindful of the presence of God.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some scholars believe that the apostle Paul\u2019s first letter to the Thessalonians could be the earliest written text in the New Testament (52AD). In chapter 5 there is a curiously short verse which says, \u201cPray without ceasing.\u201d We all know the verse, and we all typically ignore it. I think we\u2019re missing out on something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[663,338,96],"class_list":["post-2038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-an-altar-in-the-world","tag-barbara-brown-taylor","tag-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\n