You Can’t Multi-task the God-Relationship
(I took this picture of a woman praying in the Church of the Holy Seplulchre in Jerusalem.)
“I pray when I shop. I pray when I’m at work. I pray when I’m doing a lot of other things.” I hear people say this. Is it possible to do this? I think: yes. Is this the kind of prayer we see in the Christian scriptures? No.
My father could watch TV, read the newspaper, and sleep - all at the same time. If we tried to change the channel he would wake up and say, “Hey, I was watching that!” And I would think, no, that’s not possible.
I like Dallas Willard’s definition of prayer: prayer is talking with God about what we are doing together. It’s all about a relationship. And, it’s a relationship of love. For example, when I was dating Linda I could have spent time with her while accomplishing a whole lot of other things as well. I could have, say, mowed the lawn while on a date with her. She could have walked next to me and we could have talked, right? What’s wrong with this picture? What’s wrong is that when personal love-relationships are multi-tasked, the tasks win but love loses. The lawn gets mowed, but the relationship gets neglected.
Jesus didn’t multi-task his relationship with the Father. He spent a lot of time going off to pray, heart to heart with the Father, alone. If Jesus needed to do this, who do we think we are not to do this?
I think that the multi-task approach to prayer is typical of our anemic Western culture’s “spirituality.” Intimate prayer-oneness with God has been largely lost and its replacement turns prayer into one of many balls being juggled. So, I hear people say “I pray everywhere I go,” as if that’s some badge of honor. But that kind of prayer is NOT the heart of what is meant by “prayer” in the Christian scriptures. Real, authentic prayer is never “too busy to go alone to pray,” because the pray-er is in a love relationship with their God.
March 10th, 2008 at 10:48 am
I first of all want to say welcome back and I am so thankful that you guys had a safe and good trip. I was so moved yesturday at church by the call to help Christ with His harvest. How often I see the harvest as someone elses job not being fit myself to act. I am thankful that God will do the work for us if we let Him! Mutli tasking certainly a quality today seen as a necesity. To anyone who feels it impossible to be still, I myself have found it hard at first but God moves as He always does and that is when the supernatural seems to really take hold. I am saying this as I am listening to the radio on the computer writing a list of things to do and drinking my coffee while planning dinner and looking forward to my quiet time with God!