Different approaches to prayer

When we pray, what should we say?
What are the proper words?
What are the appropriate topics?

Let me suggest that one way to think about praying is to think of it like you were writing in a journal. Like a journal, prayer is something that no one will ever hear or see, and you can talk about just whatever is on your mind, without regard for grammar, punctuation, or even making sense.

Let me suggest that a second way to think about praying is to be silent. Imagine that prayer is a conversation in which you talk only part of the time, and spend the other parts listening. Like a conversation between people who are close, there may even be times when neither you or God is speaking, times when you are both just glad to be in each other’s presence.

Let me suggest that a third way to think about praying is to find prayer in the words you read or in music you make or hear. God may be speaking through these as much as in silence. Some of the words I listen to are those of the poet Mary Oliver, who wrote this about “praying” in her book titled Thirst.

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

Windows, and multi-tasking

I’m beginning to curse the windows on my computer. Who invented windows, and why did we think it was such a great idea? If you look at my computer, you will often see multiple windows with many tasks open: email, news, research, a letter, class plan, youth newsletter, and the column you are now reading. Of course, I’m not using all of those windows at the same time. We can only ever do one thing at time. When we have many things going at once (how busy is your computer screen?), we call it multi-tasking. But what we are really doing is single-tasking for shorter and shorter bits of time, switching from one task to the next rapidly.

For instance, after I finished writing the above paragraph, I stopped typing while I thought about how I would begin this second paragraph. But while I began to think about it, I also had the thought that I would, you know, just quickly check to see if I had heard back from someone by email, and then went back to a class plan I’m working on to add a few details. I actually think that I can do those things at the same time as I’m contemplating what to write next about multi-tasking. (Okay, that’s not true. I’m much to self-conscious to jump around while I’m writing about how I jump around too often. However, if I had been writing about something else, that is exactly what I would have done.)

I believe that the way in which technology functions encourages us to shift our focused attention too quickly from one thing to the next. Have you ever jumped from a face-to-face conversation to respond to a phone call, text, or email, and then jumped back (or tried to do both at the same time)? Have you ever followed two television programs at once, flipping back and forth when one or the other went to commercial? If so, at least you were watching one at a time. Now we have news networks that make us believe that we can pay attention to both the show and the breaking news headlines that scroll at the bottom of the screen (we can’t).

I believe that one of the much needed gifts the church can offer is the practice of focusing our attention on one thing at a time. This is what worship is about. No one can momentarily change the channel when a part of the sermon seems less relevant (much as you may wish you could). There’s no way to check something online if you happen to think of it during a prayer. Worship teaches us and reminds us of the value of stillness. To focus your attention on one thing is spiritual practice, and it also happens to be the best gift that we can give to each other.