To make this life into a work of art, we have to liberally give away the most precious thing we have – time – to make room for prayer, writes Jenna McDonald. (Pixabay photo)
To be productive in this life, we must abandon ourselves over and over again to the non-productivity of prayer. In prayer, we leave activism behind.
To make this life into a work of art, we have to liberally give away the most precious thing we have: time. And this isn’t about the time that is leftover when everything else is said and done and you flop down half-dead in your bed. This is about the first-fruits of our day. This is about giving without knowing if there will be enough for you. This is faith; and faith is the soil required for prayer.
If we step back and look at ourselves through the lens of the
culture, the praying person can often feel irrelevant and pitiful in the face
of a widespread, feverish drive for self-sufficiency and success at all costs.
It is increasingly difficult to speak to anyone “off the cuff” about prayer or
God. This is because prayer is not something you do; it is something that is
done to you. It is a completely foreign mentality to us.
Prayer constitutes the most important moments of our day because prayer
re-aligns our will with God’s and plants us firmly in reality. When we pray, we
tap into the very life of God; we begin to distinguish his voice from the
others more quickly and easily.
Sometimes we think that we are sitting down to pray about such
and such a thing or to meditate upon some spiritual truth, but so often God
creates something new (and entirely unexpected) in us out of the meagre crumbs
and half-conscious pieces we offer to him.
Though we may not see or perceive it, God prepares a luxurious banquet for
every child who comes to him to eat. The most sumptuous cream rises to the top
without our summoning it. What a consolation it is to return to those moments
spent in God’s presence as we carry out our duties throughout the day. God
alone knows what the day requires. He also knows us perfectly and where, if
left on our own, we would fall short. If we present ourselves to him in our
poverty, he will provide us with our daily bread.
When we estrange ourselves from God and the divine soil of prayer, our growth is stunted. It is then that the voice of the “accuser” speaks more loudly and more persuasively than ever. We doubt our inspirations. We forget what brings us life and joy. We see ourselves as only burdens and not as gifts to our neighbours. We see our neighbours as burdens instead of opportunities to give and to learn charity.
If we continue to starve ourselves from prayer, we will continue to languish as though in a “dry weary land without water”; we will not know which way to go or where to turn. Our duties will feel exhausting and impossible.
We have the best self-help guide at our disposal at all times.
We need not compulsively text our friends at the first sign of anguish, anxiety,
or loneliness. While community is important, time spent alone with God is the
substrate that allows all other relationships to flourish and to bear fruit.
Let God be your first contact.
In a life of prayer, you will find joy and others will find joy in you. You
will never want for true friendships because many good souls will come to you
in order to drink from God’s bounty. Those who desire to drink from the stream
of Christ are mutually refreshing to one another. This experience of community
is a foretaste of the heavenly Kingdom and the communion of saints.
The most important posture for the praying Christian is empty, cupped hands. We
assume the posture and he fills our emptiness with his richness. From his
fullness we have all received.