Sitting at the poker machine, hoping for a free spins, or hit the jackpot. Ah great! Now should I take the money, or gamble? Maybe I will try another machine. I am not sure, I think it was a bad night, I intend to come back tomorrow for round two. And when I do, I will try another game or machine, or another place, maybe I can hit the jackpot. I can share the news on Facebook or snapchat when I win, and tell my friends.
Dare I say, I feel that from observing much, especially within the “Social Media Spirituality” prevalent today that many times we all fall into thinking that God is the owner of “Crown Casino” and we are the gamblers.
This is the image of God that is so entrenched in us from childhood and to an extent may have its place and time, but if this is the God of the Christian revelation, then bring out the next census (if it works this time!) as I will join my brothers and sisters who profess to be atheists and tick the same box.
Taken further, the way we relate to this God, the “casino owner”, is most notable through prayer. Prayer becomes like playing the pokies. How often was my prayer life like time at the machine hoping that the divine billionaire answers my request and I hit the jackpot? How disappointed I am when my prayers and endless requests were not answered? When God was not doing what I wanted, I would simply find other machines, casinos or other games that were more rewarding. For some people it is going to different Saints and for others even giving up on gambling altogether.
How often I gave up on prayer simply because I was not being heard? I would simply stop praying for lengthy periods. How often when I was being heard I would tell the world of the marvellous God. Prayer was indeed a game of pokies.
I am not being insensitive. I know that prayer is not easy and that when one is desperate for a miracle or when we are excited about a miracle then we must tell the world. Great, let’s do that. I am just putting up a warning sign up about the kind of “Faceboook Spirituality” we are developing and promoting. I am also calling for a paradigm shift.
This “Facebook spirituality” makes God as a dispenser of gifts and prayer becomes our time at the store to get what we want. God is not Santa Claus and we are not children waiting for presents.
Prayer is about ‘BEING with’ God. It is a time where God comes to me personally. It is a heart-to-heart time with God who is intimately present within me and is mysteriously beyond me. It is a time where our deepest hungers are fed and our thirst is quenched at the “Well” of love. It is a time where I hear that I am the beloved child of God. This does not happen dramatically most often but slowly, slowly and maybe very slowly, too slow for our liking. Petitions and requests have their time and place for we all ask those whom we love, our needs. Jesus reminds us that “Your Father knows your needs”.
But if prayer just becomes about this and only this, then we miss the point of fostering an interior life and nurturing God’s life in our hearts. We miss real growth that needs time. We miss being attentive to the Spirit. We miss being ourselves in prayer, we miss on de-masking and just being contemplatives. We miss being loved and absorbing love because we are too busy asking. We miss out on just “being“.
Pope Francis reminds us that:
“prayer is not a magic wand… The goal of the prayer is of secondary importance; what matters above all is the relationship with the Father… This is what makes the prayer transform the desire and shape it according to the will of God, whatever it may be, because the person who prays first of all aspires to union with God, who is Merciful Love.”
Let us all prayer that we all spend time in prayer so that we can BEcome a prayer!!!
Burning Hearts 