April 4: Of Persistence and Prayer

Deuteronomy 26:1-27:26

Luke 10:38-11:13

Psalm 76:1-12

Proverbs 12:15-17

per*sist: to be obstinately repetitious, insistent or tenacious; to hold firmly and steadfastly to a purpose, state or undertaking despite obstacles, warnings or setbacks. 

In the New York area, it's been three weeks since the lockdown and quarantine began, since people began to lose their jobs and their income en masse.  Three weeks of uncertainty, of worry, of friction at home as people learn to navigate the new dynamics of work-from-home and home schooling, of the ever nearer threat of a virus that seems to have infected someone we know, or taken the life of someone we've heard of.  Three weeks of rising infections and fatalities, with no end in sight. And for much of the rest of the world, it has been just as bad, if not worse.  What are we to do?

Today's reading provides a one word prescription: persist.  Two examples, and an instruction.  The neighbor had gone to bed, but the one in need persisted.  Martha needed help in the kitchen, but Mary persisted.  The neighbor in need got his bread, and Mary got the more valuable benefit.  Indeed our Lord says as much.  He doesn't say "ask once" or "knock once", he says "ask" and "knock" - call it the present persistent tense.  

Easy to say, but hard to do - but perhaps easier if we remember two reasons why people persist: we believe the goal is worth it despite the price, and achievable despite the obstacles or setbacks.  Today we pray for God to end the pandemic, to protect our healthcare workers, our grocers and all those on the front lines, and to provide for those who who've lost their jobs.  To heal those who are today sick, and to welcome home those who have passed on.  

These goals are worth the persistence.  And because we pray to God, who is not only all powerful, but whose Son has reassured us that if we ask, we shall receive, we know the goal is achievable. 

As Christians, what are we to do?  The only things.  Pray.  Persist.