Whenever I hear the gospel story about Martha and Mary, I
cannot help but feel sorry for Martha. It seems like Jesus is being unfair to
her. If I was in Martha’s shoes, running around working while Mary just sat
around, I would probably complain to Jesus. I would also be upset that Jesus didn't tell Mary to get up and help. We must realize that there is more going
on here than meets this eye. This gospel does not downplay the importance of
work or service. This gospel should, however, serve as a powerful reminder
about the importance of taking the time to pray. It is critical that we
regularly imitate Mary by putting aside our duties and take the time to
consciously spend time with Jesus. Such a reminder is important as we find
ourselves so busy with work, family and social commitments.
Deep down we all harbor the suspicion that prayer is not
the best use of our time. Of course we
would never say this out loud; in theory we all agree we should take time to
pray. But our actions suggest otherwise. How often do we justify not praying by
telling ourselves that we are too busy today? I once read an interview with
Bill Gates that struck this point home. As most of you know, Bill Gates is the
founder of Microsoft and is now well known for his charity work. Though I do not agree with all the causes
Bill Gates supports, his generosity and drive in helping the poor is admirable.
In the interview he was asked: “Mr. Gates, are you a religious person?” His
response: “for me, I find that there are more productive ways that I can use my
Sunday morning than being in Church”. I do not know whether Bill Gates still
thinks like this, I mention it because I think that he said out loud what we
often think. Often we think that there are better ways to use our time than
spending it is prayer and religious pursuits.
The truth is that prayer makes us better people. When we pray we give God the opportunity to transform
us. I firmly believe
that prayer makes me a better human being.
When I do not pray enough I find that I am less patient and not as kind.
When I do not pray enough I lose sight of what is truly important in life and
become bogged down in work and duties. I
become like Martha: distracted by many things. It is as though each of us is
like an electric car which has batteries that power the engine. For a while the
car runs great, but after some time you need to plug the car in otherwise the
batteries get drained, the car loses power and will eventually stop. As
Christians our “batteries” hold the grace of God, His strength and life, rather
than an electric charge. If we do not take the time to re-charge we will stop
working properly, we cannot live like Jesus intends. When we pray we “plug
into” Jesus, the source of all goodness, love and kindness. In prayer we become like Mary in the gospel,
we sit at Jesus’ feet and He charges us with His grace. Plugging in an electric
car to recharge it is not optional. Likewise for us Christians, taking the time
to pray is not optional. When we pray we give God the opportunity to change us
for the better.
In order for God to transform our lives through prayer we
need to pray regularly each day. Just as regular practice is crucial to
becoming a good musician, praying regularly is fundamental to becoming a good
Christian. There was this great pianist called Ignacy Jan Paderewski. When
asked about the important of practice he said the following: “If I miss one day
of practice, I notice it. If I miss two
days, the critics notice it. If I miss three days, the audience notices it.” If
we pray regularly, we should experience the same thing. If you miss praying one
day, you will notice the difference, you may be less patient for example. If
you miss two days, those closest to you, your family, will notice a difference.
If you miss three days everyone else will notice a difference. Sometimes we are
inspired to make a grand plan to pray for a long time each day, but what
usually happens is that after two days we stop. It is much better to choose a
realistic amount of time to pray, and a certain time that you can be sure to
pray each day and stick to it. For example, perhaps you just have time for five
minutes of personal prayer each day that you can do first thing in the morning.
The important thing is that you are faithful to this time and do it every day.
This regularity in prayer is a great sign of love to God and will also allow
Him to change you.
In the end, the more generous we are with God in our
prayer life, the more He will be able to transform us. God can only transform us to the extent that
we give ourselves to Him in prayer. Generosity in prayer is about more than
just spending time in prayer, but also about how open we are with Jesus. For
example, the more honest that we are with Jesus in prayer about our problems,
the more He can help us with them. There is story that illustrates this
principle. In India there was a beggar
sitting by the side of the road. Every so often a traveller would pass by and
place a little rice in the bowl the beggar was holding. One day the beggar
heard the king approaching with his entourage. This was the moment the beggar
was waiting for. Surely the king would give him plenty of rice! The king did
indeed stop before the beggar. But when he bent over towards him, this great king
said something unexpected. The king said to the beggar, “give me some of your rice”. The beggar was taken aback! He reached into his bowl
and gave the king one grain of rice. The great king calmly replied “is that
all”? Furious, the beggar took out a second grain from his bowl and tossed it
at the king. With this the king gathered up his entourage and was off. The beggar,
filled with rage, greedily fingered the remaining rice grains in his bowl. It
was then that he noticed that one grain felt different to the touch. When he
brought it out of the bowl he noticed that it was a grain of pure gold! The
beggar quickly checked the rest of his bowl. To his delight he found a second
grain of gold. He had one grain of gold for each grain of rice he gave the
king. As the king walked away, the beggar couldn't help thinking “why on earth
did I not give the king everything?!” We
should ask ourselves the same question. Why do we not give our King, Jesus
Christ, everything? The more generous we are with God in prayer, the more God
can transform us.
Though we are busy, if we are honest with ourselves and
examine how much time we spend daily on television or social media I think we
must conclude that we do have time to pray more. Today let us commit to praying
more regularly. If you do not yet have a daily time of personal prayer, commit
to pray 5 minutes each day at some time that works for you. If you are already
do this, commit to praying 5 minutes more. Let us be generous with God. Pray
regularly and allow yourself to be transformed by God. You will be doing
yourself and everyone around you a favor.
