It’s been over 20 years since technology journalist Danny O’Brien coined the term “lifehack,” referring to a shortcut or more efficient way of doing some common task. Though its usage in everyday parlance is still going strong, in recent years there has been a backlash against lifehack skills demonstrating how some shortcuts have gotten out of hand.
For instance, there are now content creators whose sole angle is to make fun of lifehacks. Sometimes in hilarious ways, they point out that no clever tools, reminders, or systems can remove the difficulty of doing the dishes or laundry or raising children. It’s all hard work worth doing. Despite this, many of us persist in our impression that some uniquely efficient solution exists for each uniquely difficult problem.
Many of us have carried this shortcut mentality into our spiritual life. We look at our problems of loneliness or joblessness or grief or whatever hardship we may be facing and believe that we must find some kind of spiritual solution that is unique to our problem.
It’s natural to ask questions when facing adversity: What specifically is God showing me? What is he trying to teach me exactly? What does he want me to do that I’m not doing? Though these questions are not inherently wrong, we may use them in an attempt to short circuit our suffering. The goal isn’t to understand hardship. The goal is to endure hardship.
Over and against the lifehack mentality, we may just need to heed Jesus’ command to us: Always pray, and do not lose heart (Luke 18:1). The context for this command is the parable of The Persistent Widow or sometimes called the parable of The Unjust Judge (Luke 18:1-8). The first title seems more appropriate since Jesus tells us that the widow is the reason he’s telling the story. He wants us to learn something from her about persistence in prayer.
The widow comes every day to an unjust judge to ask him: “Give me justice against my adversary.” This request for “justice” is all we know about her problem. The issue was certainly complicated or involved, as it required some kind of official action. Additionally, her other difficulties were certainly vast, since, as a widow, she was in one of the most difficult and isolating positions in her society.
We have no idea what kind of justice she required or help she needed. Jesus places all the emphasis on her action: persistently showing up! Every day she made her requests despite the unwilling audience.
Further, Jesus highlights the attitude of hope that she displayed. She didn’t lose heart. She trusted that justice would prevail. Scripture consistently tells us that our attitude and character matter in God’s answers to our prayers. We know, for example, that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16b).
Also, consider what Scripture says about Jesus’ own prayers: “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7, emphasis mine).
Jesus wasn’t heard by God the Father just because he himself was God incarnate or merely because he had an eternal relationship with the Father. He was heard because he displayed a certain attitude of reverence. In other words, Jesus showed up consistently and took the work of prayer seriously.
Rather than a spiritual lifehack, perhaps God is using your hardship to cultivate in you a gritty persistence in prayer. Perhaps what he is teaching is not a specific lesson but a general dependence. Perhaps he would have you stay where you are and keep showing up in faith and hope.
Do we really have hope that God will hear and answer our long persistence in prayer? The Luke passage tells us: “And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily” (Luke 18:7-8a).
Clearly, the unjust judge is not a picture of God but a foil for God’s compassionate listening.
- The unjust judge doesn’t care and just wants to be rid of a nuisance. The Judge of all the earth, God himself cares more than anyone else and shows compassion to his elect.
- The unjust judge has no respect for the law. The Judge of all the earth loves his law and cares about the right thing.
- The unjust judge drags his feet. The Judge of all the earth will not delay long.
That last promise seems particularly troubling. How is God answering our requests “speedily” when it seems to take so long? We do well to remember that our timeline is not the same as God’s. Peter reminds us, a thousand years and a day are the same for God (2 Peter 3:8).
But the answer goes deeper than God’s view of time. The encouragement to us is to believe that God knows what is best and when. God does not delay any longer than would be good for his plan and good for his people.
This truth is certainly hard to believe at times, but faith becomes real when we trust that the God who sees all, knows all, and sovereignly plans all is weaving a story so intricately beautiful that even the most painful parts redound to the good. Hope in that story can keep us showing up, day after day, to do the hard work of persistently praying through our difficulties.
Jesus assumes that we are going to have suffering so difficult that it will make us want to lose heart. He further assumes that sometimes this difficulty will stay with us for what seems like a long time, such that we will want to stop engaging in prayer. Perhaps it’s time to settle in and learn that this long endurance is exactly where God wants you to be.
Gray Ewing serves as pastor of Ascension Church in Phoenix, Arizona.