We all have hard times, ranging from the minor annoyances, slights, and hurts of everyday life to more serious and even desperate crises.
Growing up in the church–as a pastor’s kid, no less–I often heard the words “pray about it” or “I’ll pray for you” batted about rather mindlessly.
There’s a funny meme I saw once that said something along the lines of “when considering ‘what would Jesus do,’ remember that flipping over tables and telling people off is a viable option.”
Now, I am not taking Jesus’ actions in the cleansing of the temple as prescriptive, of course–keeping in mind that Jesus strenuously advocates nonresistance and spends most of his time teaching and healing rather than telling people off–but that silly little meme is a nice push-back against the sometimes-prevalent notion of Jesus as just a really “nice” guy.
I’ve been thinking about the timidity of my own prayers lately, and the fact that I’ll often pray rather feebly, especially when there’s a lot on my mind. Instead of spill my guts to God, it can feel easier just to ignore God altogether, something along the lines of “If you can’t say anything ‘nice’ to God, don’t say anything at all.”
Reflecting on my disinclination to pray, I remembered this excerpt from Margaret Kim Peterson’s wonderful memoir Sing Me To Heaven, in which she recounts one of her professors describing the difference between conventional Protestant prayer and the psalmists’ prayers:
The Protestant prays, “O Lord, we’re not worth much. We have these people we want you to heal. We don’t think you’ll do it. Thy will be done. Amen.” The psalmist prays, “O Lord, remember the deuteronomic law code? It says you will vindicate the righteous. Well, I’m righteous, and I’m a little short in the vindication department. Hello? hello? Is there anybody there?” The psalmist’s prayer certainly seemed the more robustly faithful, but I wasn’t sure I was up for such prayer.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t hear a lot of lament going on in Christian conversations these days. I don’t hear a lot of wrestling with God over the injustices and horrors of the world. And it seems to me that while more conservative Christians are afraid to argue with the Almighty, more liberal Christians are afraid to ask for God’s just judgment.Without getting into details, let’s just say there are a variety of things on my mind that I want to pray about, but I find I’m not always so sure how, exactly, to pray about them. There are things, for example, that I am not ready to simply be “grateful” for. There are injustices I want to see rectified. There are, as I said, times when I’d rather give God the silent treatment than to pray.But what if the Bible suggests that complaining to God about how things are is actually okay–more than okay, really? I mean, why else do we pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven if we aren’t, in fact, pretty sick of how things are going on earth?
Some people make pro/con lists to figure things out. I use stick figures. So here you go. Take from it what you will.
