Dear Faith Family,
I don't know about you, but I find myself snacking more in these days of confinement than I usually do. Now, I am a snacker even when not restricted, which is one reason I patronize certain coffee shops to help me avoid the temptations awaiting in my pantry and fridge. But in these days of sheltering, working, and doing everything else at home, the trips to the kitchen (which is just a few steps to my right as I type) are, well...frequent!
While modest snacking is acceptable, and perhaps even beneficial, the truth is that the more I snack, popping into the kitchen for an apple here and a piece of chocolate there and there and there again (!), the less inclined I am to desire, enjoy, or benefit from the filling and more nutritious meals Deedra provides for our family. In an extended period of indulging in this habit, my body, mind, and soul feel undernourished and a bit sluggish. Do you know what I mean?
Well, here is the thing I have noticed: my prayer life is reflecting my dietary habits, and sharing the unfortunate ramifications as well. I am "snacking" more in my conversations with our Father, popping off a little prayer for something here, asking him for favor or relief there, speaking at him more than speaking with him, and finding that I am less inclined to desire, enjoy, or benefit from the filling and nutritious banquet laid out before me by Jesus. Do you know what I mean?
"...the Church's banquet," that's how George Herbert described prayer. Not an insalubrious snack, but a smorgasbord so abundant that one leaves unsatisfied only by choosing to snack or diet rather than dine. Maybe the confinement with its lack of solitude and rarity of quiet and abundance of distractions has exacerbated my 'snacklet' prayers, or maybe there is something deeper (or perhaps even a shallowness) that keeps me stepping to the pantry for something to snatch for momentary satisfaction? Regardless, what I want--no, what I need--is to moderate my snacking, not by praying "more" but rather engaging in prayer like it is indeed a banquet. Intentionally setting my mind and heart on the reality that answering God, conversing with him, listening to him, is an abundance rather than a quick bite.
I know it sounds a little silly, perhaps even oversimplified, to suggest that the solution is a change of perspective. Still, our scriptures seem to be pretty adamant that it is our perspectives that keep us from experiencing the full benefits of what we have been given in Jesus (see Lk. 19:11-27). So, to help myself...and you if you need it(!)...pray while under our curtailment, I want to encourage some meditation on prayer being our banquet. To aid our imagination, I offer you another believer's (Malcome Guite) mediation on "The Church's Banquet":
Not some strict modicum, exact allowance,
Precise prescription, rigid regimen,
But beauty and gratuitous abundance,
Capacious grace, beyond comparison.
Not something hasty, always snatched alone;
Junkets of junk food, fueling our dis-ease,
Not little snacklets eaten on the run,
But peace and plenty, taken at our ease.
Not to be worked for, not another task,
But love that's lavished on us, full and free,
Course after course of hospitality,
And rich wine flowing from an unstopped flask.
He paid the price before we reached the inn,
And all he asks of us is to begin.
Think long on this reflection. And know that I will be praying that your prayers, and mine, might be feasts in these days of restriction! Love you, God bless!