Lord, I can't pray
Try as I may
I want to, Lord, and I wish that I could
But it doesn't come out as I hoped that it would
When I come to the place of quiet devotion
I find that my mind is full of commotion.
Lord, I can't pray
Try as I may
It's not the roar of the world outside
But the noise that I carry inside of my mind
The thoughts, the intentions, all sorts of distractions
The things that I fear, the worries I bear
Please carry my worries, ambitions and fears
Reach out in your love and dry up my tears
Help me abandon my fear of tomorrow
And dwell in the NOW, where there's no cause for sorrow
I think I'll stop trying to pray.
I'm here
And it's quiet,
So I'll stay.
Martha realises she has made a fool of herself and recognises
her weakness in 'the prayer department'. The song recognises that
there is much more to Martha's story than the version that most
people remember. She certainly missed the point in that early meeting
with Jesus when she gave more priority to acts of service than to
actually communicating wth him. But the same Martha later became
the only person other than Peter who clearly recognised Jesus and
the Messiah. She had learned a lot in the meantime.
"Lord, I can't pray" is a journey of self-realisation
that each of us needs to travel on if we want to experience true
prayer. This is the kind of prayer that listens to God, rather than
giving him our advice and instructions.
Eventually, we must learn to stop talking and just wait in his
presence. That's where prayer really begins.