We Americans pray, but we may not know how to pray. According to a Gallop Poll, 87% of all Americans pray, 50% use prayer for petitions, and 70% claim their prayers are answered. Although we are not allowed to pray as community in public schools, it is clear that Americans do manage to pray.

But, do we know how to pray as we ought? When we pray are we just speaking to ourselves, or are we speaking to God? If you feel somewhat inadequate in knowing how prayer works and exactly how to pray, then take heart you are in good company. For none other than the disciples felt the same way. Even Paul wrote in Romans 8:26: “We do not know how to pray as we ought.”

One day the disciples, after listening to Jesus pray, asked him if he would teach them how to do it. In response Jesus did not give an extended seminar on the subject but rather told a wonderfully human story, that was simple yet profound. It goes like this:

Late one evening an unexpected visitor came to a certain man’s home. The householder was certainly glad to see him but he was also concerned because he had no bread in the house to set before him. It is a reminder of old nursery rhyme Old Mother Hubbard who found her cupboard bare. It was the custom of the frugal Jewish mother to make only as much bread as was absolutely necessary for the day so that none would be wasted. But in the Eastern part of the world hospitality was a sacred duty. It was unacceptable to give a guest no food, regardless of how unexpected he was. But what to do? The market place was obviously closed, for it was now midnight. There was simply no bread in the house.

But the householder has a trump card. He may not have bread but he does have a neighbor.