Let Us Pray

NO ONE LIKES TO be bored. Especially now, in this age, with a million ways to be entertained. Things like the optionality of commercials reinforces our impatience. When only a decade or so ago, sitting through an advertisement with twiddling thumbs was an obligation. Now it’s a choice no one makes. Keep the entertainment going we say.

Then there’s the wonderfully terrible invention of social media that entertains without ceasing. Like the Colosseum in our hands. In one swipe, videos of a recipe, a twelve-second sermon, a slam dunk, a knee on a neck, an article about nothing or everything, a riot at the Capitol, and a dog singing Sinatra.

It’s no wonder that when it’s time to pray, the length and consistency of the prayer suffer under the weight of a mind that’s completely uncomfortable with boredom. In whatever quiet place you’ve chosen, in your car or in your closet, you sit or lie, kneel or stand. Closing your eyes, you begin, as usual, “Our Father” or something like it. Then you remember you forgot to get some paper towels for the kitchen. “Who art in heaven . . .” Then there’s the online meeting you have on Thursday. “Hallowed be Your name.” And why didn’t Daddy buy the bike you asked for when you were twelve? At this point, you have two options: keep sitting with God in the silence of everything, or give in to the noise in your mind, which, if you’re honest, feels more entertaining than intimacy.

“Think of boredom during silent prayer as an act of purification,” one pastor recommends. “In this uneventful moment, God purifies us of the false god of good feelings. Silent prayer is often something I want to avoid because it forces me to exorcise the demons of excitement, stimulation, and distraction.”On some level, regaining discipline over your prayer life will happen as you rediscover the beauty of boredom. As long as you need to be doing, writing, reading, laughing at, watching something to have joy, prayer will be of no interest to you. But if you pause and remember the beginning of the prayer again— “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name”—you will be remembering God, the aim of every prayer. Whether in a closet or a car, the One to whom you speak is holy in heaven, transcendent in nature, yet relational and therefore near to you, His child. He is most interesting. Most intriguing. Not entertaining per se, but completely worthy of your mind’s focus. And trust me, distractions will happen. It’s a part of what it means for you to be you. But every time your mind wanders, just find your way back to God again and again and again.