I’ve wrestled with prayer for quite awhile. I need to say at the outset it’s never been one of my favorite activities. I have similar feelings toward brushing my teeth or doing the dishes! I know of course that pray- er is a good thing. It honors God, it asks for help, it puts life in the right perspective. I feel better when it’s over. I know all this.
My childish problem with prayer is that most times it’s not fun. It is a mental routine that requires effort; sort of like push-ups or sit-ups. There’s a certain fa- tigue that happens. My adult self of course tells me life isn’t always “fun.” We do some things because they are good in themselves (“Eat your vegetables Tim. They’re good for you.”) Why do I still prefer pizza?
Added to the wrestling is the thought that God al- ready knows everything . . . so what’s the point in me telling Him stuff or asking for what He already knows I need. “God, why do we have to talk about it? You know it all already.” Left with these thoughts I struggle to be faithful to prayer. It’s tiring, lonely, and boring.
So what am I missing?
Well, consider life without prayer. When you think about it, it’s like life without God. To stop praying is to stop seeing ourselves in relationship with Him. I become the only meaning of the universe.
It doesn’t happen right away, but after some time (months, years) I’m blind to any sign or thought of God. I’m still a good person but it just happens . . . God has become pretty irrelevant at this point. “I have enough to handle in life without dealing with a God I can’t see or hear.”
This is the feeling that happens when someone has been away from Mass on Sunday for some time. The roof hasn’t fallen in so . . . I’m cool. Maybe you’ve been there.
Did you ever meet someone whose only interest was in getting what was in it for them? Little children have a phase in growing up where they have to learn that they are not the center of all existence. A parent’s gentle “no” is the beginning of this lesson. Not a very pleasant experience at first. It leads how- ever to the happy experience of others — to “mom”, “dad”, “sister”, etc. And this is the point; the human being is the one creature God created “to be WITH”. We need the ‘other’ to become ourselves.
Prayer is the way God gives us to be in relationship with Him. God doesn’t need our prayers, like some beauty Queen who needs to be told how beautiful she is. We need prayer to discover the fact that we were made for “relationship.” And that relationship is best described as a child to their parent.
So why should I pray? Because that’s who we are, God’s Children. It fixes us in this crazy world. Pray- er helps us understand we are not alone and points us to what is our ultimate meaning – – to see God. It gives us a way to express the deepest longing of our heart. It connects me to God.
Lent. Week Three. Let’s keep moving forward. Have a good week.
Fr. Tim
P.S. Next week we’ll talk about a little “prayer drill” that can get you started praying again.
