Gearing

When we drive a car we change gears up or down as we pull away, accelerate, change speed etc. The gearbox in the vehicle enables us to select the best ratio of power produced by the engine to wheel speed for the conditions and vehicle speed in the moment. Car design engineers put a lot of work and calculation into those gear ratios for good reason - without the right ratios the car would not drive well.

But do we think about the ratios of our time reserved for prayer with respect to the 'wheel speed' of our activity? Or to put it another way: the 'gearing' associated with our ministry activity? Is the time and effort expended on the actual activity greater than the time (and effort) expended on prayer - and prayer focussed on that activity? Such a ratio of prayer to activity(mathematically prayer:activity) would be less than 1.0 - is that right or a good thing?

Personally I came to realise that for my own situation the ratio was not where I thought it should be - it was way less than 1.0! I figure these days it should quite often be greater than 1.0, i.e. more prayer than activity. The problem was I found that the demands of activity meant that (despite my efforts) I struggled to adjust things towards a better ratio (back to the car analogy: my gear stick was stuck!).

A new gearbox was needed ...

Sometimes we need to take quite radical action to change the gearing of our ministry. Think about your ratios, think about your own gearing. Change as necessary!