Prayer is a weird thing. As a pastor, I have developed a lot of thoughts about prayer over the years and a lot of different understandings and practices of prayer. Mostly, they work just fine, though I have my dry spells like anyone else.
Recently though, there's been this other thing to pray about. One of those things you're not really sure you should pray for, because you might not get it. I'm not really sure how I feel about praying for God to make specific things happen in my life. I'm not sure I believe that God does things like that, or that it's fair to put God in that position, or to ask for favor over others, or whatever it is that's entailed by asking for certain things.
But lately, I decided to just go for it, whether it makes sense or not. The text of the prayer, though usually it was in shorthand, was something like, "God, I know this might not happen, and you might not work this way, but we really, really, really need this, so please, please, please, please, please, please, please."
It made me feel a little desperate to pray this way. But there is absolutely nothing else I can do to influence the outcome of this particular question. And I had to do something.
So yesterday, we found out that we've made it through the first step. We're going to Round Two. I'm not even sure when I was saying "please" if I was asking for anything more than that. So now I have to decide if I'm willing to pray about Round Two the same way. I'm guessing I am.
In the end, whether God works this way or not (about which I am going to refuse to have an opinion), the practice of this sort of desperate prayer can be healthy, I think. It is teaching me humility and hope and possibly trust. It reminds me that the other shorthand thing included in the prayer is "if it be thy will."
There is a hymn we sing that includes the line "teach me the patience of unanswered prayer." That is definitely not what I want to happen in this situation. But I think one of the reasons pastors sometimes counsel folks to avoid this type of prayer is because of the potential fall-out if people don't get what they ask for. I know that I would be terribly, terribly disappointed. But I don't think I would blame God. I don't think I would blame anyone. And perhaps I would learn a little of the "patience of unanswered prayer." But here's hoping we can save that lesson for another time!
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I admit I don't remember all of the sermons I've heard in my life! but I have remembered part of a sermon that I heard over 16 years ago now. The line I remember was the encouragement to "Pray boldly." The reasoning was that "God can take it." I remember this sermon when I tell children that they can pray anywhere, anytime, about anything.
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