Did I Say It Right – Dr. Jones

I freely admit I love the conveniences of the modern world and can get a bit whiney when they don’t work.  Last weekend my son Ben and I went to see a movie. Instead of standing in line at the ticket booth I went to the small computer monitor located for my convenience. That’s how I take it buy the way, located for MY convenience.  I selected the movie, swiped my card and …nothing. The screen said “this monitor for viewing only, no tickets can be purchased at this time.”    Now was it a big deal in the grand scheme of my life? No not really.  But did it irritate me? Yes it did. I had to walk four entire feet and stand in a line three people deep to get my tickets.

Let’s face it; we want what we want when we want it. We love the idea of pressing the select button and get what we want. Which is OK; I guess when we are selecting a soft drink.  But how many of us have that exact same approach when we pray? Jesus is our great Vending Machine God. We make our selections, press select and say amen. With an audible whoosh God is supposed to swoop down and answer all our prayers. Right? Isn’t that what today’s Scripture means? Or is it possible Jesus was saying something very different about prayer? In fact might there be a benefit to having a God who doesn’t act like a vending machine?