Too Busy Not to Pray

by Tom Goodman

 

Are you “reviewing the dailies” with God?

Pastor John Ortberg was struck by an article from cinematographer Bob Fisher about the need for movie crews to spend some time every day reviewing the film that was shot the day before. Before rushing into the next day’s production, reviewing the previous day’s work enables filmmakers to spot little mistakes while they can still be corrected, and they can celebrate what is going right.

Ortberg recommended that we take a few moments to “review the dailies” with God, too. How are you doing in that important work? Do you have a daily Bible reading routine? A place and time to pray and briefly reflect?

I have a love-hate relationship with the writings of Anne Lamott, but Andree Seu alerted me to an absolutely beautiful Lamott story of a friend whose two-year-old inadvertently locked himself in his room while they were on vacation. It illustrates why we need that regular time of prayer and Bible study. As Seu recounts it:

The Mom struggled vainly to get the door unlocked -- trying a few keys she knew weren’t the right ones, phoning around to get the landlord. Finally someone was reached and on the way, but there was still a frightened little boy to deal with as they waited for rescue, and his reasoning and verbal skills being minimal, he would not understand the nearness of his deliverance.

So Mom got the bright idea to get down on her knees on her side of the door and slip her fingers underneath in the inch or so gap between door and floor, and she asked the inconsolable child to do the same. He would not be able to see his mother’s face until the savior bearing keys arrived, but the feel of her presence through her fingertips while they waited provided some comfort and a sense that everything would be all right.

This is like our relationship with God. For now we are bereft of his full presence, for reasons not entirely clear. But he holds out his fingers and I hold out mine, as we touch through his Word and his Spirit every morning. Like Anne says, “It isn’t enough. And it is.”

We are often very much like frightened, confused children. Through prayer and Bible reading, let God give you that “touch” from the other side, reassuring us that everything’s going to be okay as we wait for deliverance.

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