Prayer And Chopping Vegetables

PRAYER AND CHOPPING VEGETABLES

Jan and I were watching a cooking show the other day -- Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa, I think it was -- and I commented on how Ina chops vegetables. In this instance, she was chopping parsley, and she held the knife in one hand while resting her other hand on top it, on the blunt edge. Then she rocked the knife up and down with admirable speed and agility. I turned to Jan and said, "She makes that look easy."

And she does! She even talks to the camera while she's doing it. And, you know, it probably is easy, once you learn how to do it. But, if I were to try it, I would have to think about it. I certainly couldn't talk to others while doing it. And I wouldn't be nearly as quick and thorough as Ina is. Until...I had done it enough times, made enough mistakes, trained my eyes and my muscles, and become familiar with the movement and the rhythm...in other words, until I had disciplined myself! I probably never would be as good at it as Ina is, but I would be a lot better at it than I am now!

That's the way prayer is. People think that prayer ought to come easy, and they don't do it -- or don't do much of it -- because, when they try, they find out it's not easy.

Learning to pray is a discipline -- not unlike learning to chop vegetables.