The Stillness of Prayer

A few years ago, it seemed that everyone wanted to brag about their skills at multi-tasking – the ability to do more than one thing at a time.

We know that generally, this isn’t particularly effective – rather than do multiple things simultaneously, we flip our attention from one task to another rapidly. This means that no one task is getting full attention; we are more likely to experience errors, and usually the completion of tasks takes longer when we try to do things overlapping. We know this isn’t necessarily terrible in doing some tasks (like listening to music while baking, which may lead to ruined muffins or skipped lyrics). However, in other tasks, such distracted attention can have hazardous results – those who text message while driving are 23 times more likely to be involved in a collision.

Despite this, the world still seems to set high expectations on us, to accomplish increasing numbers of tasks in decreasing timelines. I, for one, have colour-coded my calendar, I have a check-box to-do list each week, I often keep a notepad nearby for when my brain flits to something I know will warrant attention. And with all that, I remain a constant fidgeter, with thoughts that sometimes leap from one to the next, before a completed action occurs.

This, perhaps is the best reason to remove all hopes of multitasking during prayer and worship. We want to give our full focus and attention to God; to be still in the presence of the divine. We don’t want to be concentrating on the project for work during prayers, or contemplating the week’s meal planning and grocery list when studying the scriptures.

It can be counter-cultural, then, to sit still and pray. It can be so rewarding and refreshing, however, to be using our brains in a singular, focused manner: especially when the focus is on fostering our relationship with the one who created us – and knows us fully (brain capacity and skillsets included!).

So as the world invites us into a pattern of bigger/better/faster/more; let’s sit calmly and joyously, with focus, in the presence of the Lord – if only for a few moments each day – for this is the sabbath that God intends for us.