About four minutes into praying my mind is on emails and what is for dinner. How do I stay present instead of drifting off?

“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”

This line sits at the end of a psalm about earthquakes, war and collapsing kingdoms, not a quiet room. The Hebrew behind be still carries the sense of letting your hands drop and ceasing from effort. It was written for people whose minds were full for very good reasons. Stillness here is not a personality trait you either have or lack, it is something you are being invited into.

“And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.”

In Gethsemane, on the worst night of his life, Jesus asked three friends to stay awake and pray with him, and they fell asleep. Twice. His response is startlingly gentle: he names the gap between what they wanted and what their bodies could manage. Mark keeps this in the record. The people closest to Jesus could not concentrate in prayer either, and he did not write them off.