I realize that I may be dating myself a
little bit here, but I’m a huge Mr. Bean fan. If you’ve never heard of him, Mr.
Bean is a character played by Rowan Atkinson – a bumbling, clumsy, selfish,
nearly mute individual who regularly finds himself in bizarre situations.
In
one of the Mr. Bean episodes, the star is in the enviable position of getting
to meet the Queen of England. Standing in a line and waiting his turn, he
spends several minutes preparing for this once-in-a-lifetime event. He
rehearses his bow, freshens his breath and trims his nail, among other things.
The
moment when he meets the Queen is a disaster. When she steps in front of him
his nerves have taken over and he proceeds to bow deeply in great reverence
before her, only to smash heads with her and knock her to the ground.
Unbelievable! He had the chance to speak with someone of great importance but
he blew it.
We
have the chance to speak with someone even greater than the Queen of England on
a daily basis: God. Do we take advantage of this opportunity? Do we speak with
Him properly? Or do we too, blow it?
At
times I think about how to best go about praying to God. Sometimes I use the
ACTS acronym method: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. I’ve
used the Lord’s Prayer as a guide for my thoughts, praying and then expanding
upon its various petitions. I’m intrigued by the idea of reading and reflecting
on a specific Scripture passage, and then praying that passage into life. It
can also be nice to just let your thoughts go where they will when praying.
Perhaps
you struggle with the best way to pray too. We often think that more is better:
more money is better than less money, I get happy when more people like my
Facebook comment than yours, I enjoy having a great number of songs on my iPod
to choose from, I want to buy the computer with the most power I can afford.
Living
in a world where more is considered better, we might get the idea that the more
words we use, the more likely it is that God will hear us. As children we
applied a similar principle whenever we wanted something that our parents were
reluctant to grant us – hounding them until we got our way (do you remember The
Simpson’s episode where Bart and Lisa keep a torrent of requests flying at
their dad – “Will you take us to Mount Splashmore? Will you take us to Mount
Splashmore?” – until he finally caves into the pressure to get them to shut
up?).
This
principle is operative in various religious environments as well. Faithful
Roman Catholics pray the rosary, reciting the Hail Mary prayer dozens of times
a day. Tibetan Buddhists spin prayer wheels which contain prayers or mantras,
believing that each revolution of the wheel counts as a prayer. We often
believe that more is better. But is it?
