I wonder how many times I’ve given up on trying to decide what to have for lunch and resignedly pulled out the peanut butter. Or before I can even pull out the peanut butter, I find that last, half-eaten donut. Goodbye, dignity. Hello, lunch.
Pray for me because it happens at dinner too. It’s rather sad that I sometimes can’t even be bothered to thaw out a lasagna. Maybe someone should invent a lasagna popsicle. Lasagnasicle? Not sure why that sounds gross, but ew. What if it was more of a lasagna corndog? Wait, no. Still not right.
It’s nice that so many companies are trying to fix me, meal-wise, via social media. They must be listening in on my phone because no one gets more ads for pre-made dinners delivered right to your door than I do. They’ve stopped offering me meals I can cook in 30 minutes or less. Because if they’ve listened well, they now know if it takes half an hour, I’m having peanut butter. Kind of funny that they’ve given up too.
Someday I’ll probably get an ad for a starter kit called “The ‘I Give Up on Dinner’ Dinner.” Ironically, I’m imagining that starter kit would include: some kind of frozen corndog. I wonder how many “I give up” corndogs I could eat in my lifetime. Because I think it’s a lot. And I also wonder if my lifetime would be shorter because of it.
Tongue-in-cheek-corndog-count-wonderings aside, I sometimes really do wonder how many prayers I’ve prayed in my lifetime. Do you ever wonder? Is it thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Thousands of thousands?
Then again, sometimes it’s difficult to tell where one prayer ends and the next begins. And I think that’s exactly how it’s meant to be. “Pray constantly,” we’re told in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (CSB). “Constantly” is from the Greek “adialeiptos,” meaning “incessantly.” Not quitting. No giving up.
So I hope I eventually find out my personal prayer count is somewhere closer to…one. I don’t want to let one prayer get cold before the next one begins.
In the first verse of Psalm 116, the psalmist speaks of his love for the Lord because of the way the Lord hears him. He says in verse two, “Because he has turned his ear to me, I will call out to him as long as I live” (CSB). However long our lifetimes, life-long prayer connection is inspired – and great love is kindled – when we understand that God has “turned his ear” to us. He lovingly bends down to listen.
Prayer is not about giving God a list of all the things we want Him to do for us, though certainly there’s a place for asking. But prayer is much more about relationship. Enjoying His presence. Giving Him, not just space in our life, but every space in our life.
That’s not life with little pieces of prayers sandwiched between. It’s one continuous prayer, with little pieces of life sandwiched between.
I think it’s okay that it sounds kind of hot-pocket-y. Anytime your relationship with the Lord is feeling a little cold, prayer is the defroster. Heart connections are made with our Father as we commune with Him in prayer. It’s a simple and complex truth, beautifully mind-boggling. I feel like we’re given so much to digest right there.
And I’m not talking about the corndog.