Without Ceasing

)

1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NRSV)

Pray without ceasing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We've got to pray
Just to make it today.

"Pray" sung and produced by MC Hammer featuring samples from Prince and Faith No More from "Hammer, Please Don't 'Hurt Em"

For better and for worse, much rap music deals with personal success and bragging about it. This is different. Yes, a lot of Hammer's music boasts about making money and rhymes, but there is more to this 1990 hit. It also deals with the roots of the vine, not just the fruit.

Hammer says "I won't forget my people or my town or my ways, and on my knees every night I'm still gonna pray." Yeah, leaving poverty is great, but leaving poverty and leaving everyone else behind is worse. (While his heart may have been in the right place, the sustainability of how he took care of his friends' poverty was another matter.)

Pray without ceasing, this is Paul's command. This is how Paul wraps up his instructions in this, the oldest known piece of Christian literature. 1Thessalonians predates every other word in the New Testament, so when communities were considering what it meant to be Christian, this is the first word they received from any apostle of the Lord Jesus.

And Paul told the world to pray without ceasing.

Let every motion of your life be a living prayer. Dedicate every motion, every iota of being to the Lord. We can't live every moment on our knees, but when we are on our feet, we are to be remembering the one who gave us our feet. This is how to pray without ceasing. This is how we live our lives in remembrance of the one who gave everything for us. But not only are we called to ask, we are called to listen and respond.

Prayer works both ways, and as the old saying goes, we have one mouth and two ears and two eyes. We need to listen and watch more than we speak. Pay attention, then with two hands we can respond the the call of the Lord.