If you can't pray as you want to, pray as you can. God knows what you mean.
"...Lord, help me!" Matthew 15:25
Once, while on a mission trip to Mexico, I stayed with a local family. This family had absolutely nothing when it comes to earthly possessions. They lived in a home literally built from spare tires. They slept on a dirt floor. For pillows they used plastic bags they had collected along the roadside. There was no furniture, no running water and no electricity. The only things in the home were a very cheap plastic table and about six blankets that they arranged into couches, chairs or beds, depending on the time of the day.
There was a picture of the Virgin Guadalupe hanging from a bent spike wedged between two tires.
A family of four, a mom, dad, boy and girl. And between all four they had literally nothing. Each of them had a pile of clothes in their own respective corner. There were clotheslines strung this way and that inside the home with various levels of wet clothes hanging from them. There was a fire pit right outside the pallet door. Next to the fire pit was a griddle and a pot.
When the nun asked me to stay with this family, we were at the mission. It was a stone block building with a roof and running water. It had electricity and in the kitchen, where we were at, even had a window air conditioner. "No problem," I thought when she asked if I minded to stay with the sweet family in front of me. "I'd love to."
Even though they had nothing in the physical realm, let me tell you of the untold riches they shared with me.
Each morning when they got up they said a prayer that God would let them find a job that day. The whole family. Together.
Usually the dad woke up first and then he and the mom would get the kids up. Before the sleep was wiped from their eyes, or the blankets moved back to their piles, they gathered around the picture of the Virgin Guadalupe, held hands and prayed.
They prayed that the bicycle tire would be aired up. They prayed for their cousin on the coast who had a drinking problem. They prayed for Sister Sorroco and that God would continue to give her strength to minister to her flock. They prayed for rain and for sunshine and for birds and beasts. (Well maybe not that).
But they did pray.
A lot.
They prayed for their neighbor's car to start. They prayed for the boy who skinned his knee. They gave thanks for every speck of food they had and that they had a roof over their heads. And they even prayed for me.
If I learned one thing during that mission trip, it's this.
It's hard to be sinful when you're praying all the time.
Let us pray.
Our gracious God. We sometimes forget that the more things in life we have, the more reason we have to sin. To separate ourselves from you and the love you have for us. We need to be reminded that the love you want to share with us is ever present during prayer, when we talk with you and you talk with us. We pray that no matter where we find ourselves today, no matter what our situation, that we will remember to go to you in prayer. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
The Blessings of Our Lord Jesus Christ be Upon You
PASTOR TROY CONRAD IS MINISTER OF THE FARMINGTON UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. EMAIL: [email protected].
Religion on 07/27/2016