This Post Should Probably Be Shorter
NBC’s “The Office” is arguably one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. Although the finale aired over ten years ago, the show remains one of the top streaming options each year and maintains a cult-like following in pop culture and on social media.
While characters such as Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell) and Dwight Schrute (played by Rainn Wilson) were the stars of the show, supporting cast members such as Kevin Malone (played by Brian Bumgarner) also stole viewers’ hearts. During the cold open a Season Eight episode titled “The Incentive,” Kevin decides that he’s been using more words than necessary and promises to cut down on the fluff. As he himself says to the camera to justify his actions, “Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?”
It’s a hilarious bit, but there’s some validity to Kevin’s perspective. In a world where we constantly find more and more avenues competing for our attention, we tend to gravitate toward more concise forms of information and entertainment. Thirty years ago, if you wanted to hear about current events, you would pick up a newspaper or turn on the evening news. Today, you might read through your Twitter (or X) feed instead, where posts are limited to 280 characters (about half the length of this paragraph).
The message is simple, and it’s one our friends at Charmin would appreciate: less is more. This isn’t a novel idea, either. In fact, Jesus was one of the earliest advocates and adopters of this idea. Listen to what he says in Matthew 6:7-8 (NLT): “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need before you ask him!”
Just to clarify, Jesus isn’t condemning prayers that exceed 140 characters or wouldn’t fit on a 3×5 index card. Remember, the purpose of the entire Sermon on the Mount is to get to the heart of the matter. Jesus’ goal is to help us reshape our beliefs and values in a way that naturally influences our action.
Jesus wants us to take two things to heart. First, our prayers aren’t effective because of our intellectual rhetoric, complex sentence structures, or words only familiar to National Spelling Bee contestants. The problem with these examples (besides the fact that they are completely absurd) is that they each focus on the person doing the prayer.
We are participants in the process, but 100% of the power comes from the One who hears our prayers, which is the second truth Jesus wants us to understand. As He says in the last half of Verse Eight, “The Father knows exactly what you need before you ask him.” When we show up to pray, we aren’t breaking news to God. He’s never surprised or caught off guard by what we have to say.
With this in mind, let’s wrap up with this question: if God already knows what we’ll say when we come to Him in prayer, what’s the point of praying in the first place? The reality is that prayer often does as much for our internal reality as it does for our external circumstances. Through prayer, we create space for God to come into our lives, transform our hearts, and align our desires with His. God uses our prayers to cultivate us into the people He wants us to be.