And this, dear friends, is the beauty of the Internet. That Laurie and Janet and Linda and Mary and Heather can all sit in the same imaginary room and have a conversation about prayer. Look at that.
So, what I'm hearing you say is that God doesn't disappoint you, because you weren't expecting much to begin with. That you weren't praying for something to actually happen, you were praying just to talk to God. If that's true, then you aren't you agreeing that praying makes people feel better, but it doesn't really do anything?
I disagree.
There are two questions here: does it matter if we pray? And, if you think it does, how do you remain faithful when God is silent or says no? For whatever reason, I feel a little more prepared to answer the second question than the first. So I'm going to work backwards. Assuming you do think it matters if you pray, then how do you respond when God is silent?
I have tried and tried to answer this question. I've been working on this for a few days, (not to mention the,what, three years we've been having this conversation?) but I keep writing and deleting and writing the same thing again, and then deleting it again. The truth is that I don't know. Faithful people throughout the Scriptures were beheaded, crucified, stoned, hounded by their enemies. Their daughters were raped, their babies died. Why did those things have to happen? Why didn't God stop them? We can all agree that He could have, and that it was right and logical for faithful people to assume that a loving God would want to. So why didn't he?
Here's how Jesus responded to that question, when John the Baptist presented it to him. In short, Herod was so turned on by his stepdaughter that he promised to give her whatever she wanted, and John's head on a platter is (literally) what she asked for. John, Jesus' cousin and close friend, who devoted his life to preparing the way for the Messiah, is in prison, and will soon be executed. He knows that Jesus is in the area, but Jesus isn't doing anything to help him. He's healing the masses and ignoring the needs of his friend.
So John sends someone to ask, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we wait for another?" When I read that, I hear John saying, what the heck are you doing? Are you really who you say you are? Jesus' response: "Go back and report to John what you see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."
Jesus is quoting Isaiah. In doing so, He confirms that He is the Messiah and tells John "no" in the same breath. And with the "no" came a promise: "Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me." Jesus never saved John; he died soon after. But Jesus encouraged John and affirmed his significance to God publicly. He turned and said to the crowd, " Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist."
It means a lot to me that Jesus did not criticize John for wondering why, when he needed him the most, Jesus wasn't responding. John had done nothing wrong before God to merit going to prison, nor was he wrong in questioning Jesus. Instead, Jesus said John was blessed if he could accept this, if he did not fall away because of Jesus' silence.
It's hard to accept it, and the living of it sucks. I'm doing it right now, watching every teenager I know get pregnant (no kidding) and wondering what the heck God is doing. But I wasn't promised an easy road, and the reality is that Jesus is hard to follow. While his burden is light, he also demands that we lay down our lives and trust him, even when it is irrational. God is easier - most people believe in the existence of some sort of higher power - but Jesus is hard. This isn't the answer I want, but it's the only one I know. God's ways are not ours. Evil continues to thrive, the rains fall on the righteous and the unrighteous alike, and although it appears that God is not responding, He will not be silent forever. The original question was, "When is God held responsible?" I don't think God owes us an explanation, but I do think people will be held responsible before God one day. There will be justice. Just not yet.
Sometimes Jesus is silent. It isn't fair, and faithful people suffer as a result. Yet we're told to believe God is good anyway, to trust that He takes care of us anyway. It's an issue of faith; it can't be reasoned out, because it just isn't all that rational. Job said, "Though He slay me, yet I will hope in him." Almost every Psalm says the same sentiment - though I am drowning, I will trust God. It isn't logical. Faith never is.
Blessed is the woman who does not fall away on account of Jesus.
7 comments:
As a parent, if I allow my child, who is learning to walk, to fall down and she hurts herself and cries, am I to blame for hurting her?
As a parent, if my baby girl is trying to learn to read and is stumbling over the words, and I read them for her and don't let her struggle to figure it out, will she be a good reader?
If my child sees me with a beer and thinks it's juice, should I give it to her just because she wants it SOOOOO bad and LUUUUUVVVVSSS juice and life is SOOOO unfair cuz mommy won't give her juice?
As a parent, if my teenager is robbing and drugging and hurting others and I put my child in rehab or jail so that she can't hurt herself or others, have I abandoned her?
I'm just saying, as a parent, sometimes we can see a bigger picture---we can see things and understand things that our kids can't get. Sometimes we let our kids fall and get hurt so that they can walk better later. Sometimes we let our kids struggle so that they are stronger and smarter. Sometimes we tell our kids no so that they are safer and healthier. Sometimes we walk away so that our kids can find their priorities and find their way home.
I don't completely understand faith and trusting God and prayer and how it works and what it does. But I know that I have a Daddy who loves me, who sees a bigger picture, who I TRY to entrust my heart to, no matter what. And while it's trite, and it’s a simple answer to the complex problems of life, sometimes it's all I know to believe.
--Carrie
I'm not a parent. I agree with Laurie, though. I don't blame at all that God allows us to stumble and fall. We learn life through our bruises and callouses.
What I don't understand, however, is the letting us stay down. So the Sudanese have endured great pain. Why, oh God, are they still suffering? Are you depending on humans, God, to be more like Jesus? Is that why the intervention is slow? You have all the power in the world, and you're depending on us to be more like your Son in the face of genocide, poverty, child abuse, violence, pain . . .
Is it Mother Teresa who says she wishes God wouldn't trust us so much? I secon her plea.
What to do when God is apparently silent or saying no? Maybe we need to respond in faithful silence. I believe direction follows every "no" and that God uses silence to get our attention for something else. Maybe then we'll be better able to face all that he trusts upon us when we talk less and faithfully listen to what God does have for us.
It's messy, crazy and not as simple as my last paragraph phrases it! I'll have to think more later . . .
"Anatole said suddenly, 'Don't expect God's protection in places beyond God's dominion. It will only make you feel punished. I'm warning you. When things go badly, you will blame yourself.'
'What are you telling me?'
'I am telling you what I'm telling you. Don't try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you are good, bad things can still happen. And if you are bad, you can still be lucky.'
I could see what he thought: that my faith in justice was childish, no more useful here than tires on a horse. I felt the breath of God grow cold on my skin. 'We never should have come here,' I said. 'We're just fools that have gotten by so far on dumb luck. That's what you think, isn't it?'
'I will not answer that."
'Then you mean no. We shouldn't have come.'
'No, you shouldn't. But you are here, so yes, you should be here. There are more words in the world than no and yes.'"
- From "The Poisonwood Bible"
(I'm not saying this is my opinion, but it came to mind as I was reading everyone's comments, so I thought I'd add it to the mix).
I am with Anatole, and for the record, I do not believe that God is ever silent. I think sometimes we just look too hard for an answer.
our friend margaret tried to comment here, but couldn't post anony. So, she wrote a post at our blog. Check it out--she has some good stuff to say about prayer. :)
--j and c
(Hi Margaret- nice to know you're lurking out there). To the other voyeurs - feel free to email me your comments, and I'll post them for you. "Anonymous comments" are blocked to protect against spam.
From Margaret:
"Carrie's last post sent me to Stephanie's blog, and the prayer discussion. I wrote a comment which I found out I can't post, since I'm not a blogger, so I thought I'd at least share it with you, in case you've been reading it. Here is what I would have said, if I'd had a voice...
I find it odd that we pray, and wait for God to intervene and change things, when in truth, it is we who are given the power to change the world. We forget that with faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move a mountain. We forget that we are promised that the miracles we do will exceed those done by Jesus himself. History is full of examples. Like Ghandi, who got the British to leave India without lifting a hand in violence. And Dr. M.L. King, who spoke the truth with such clarity and vision and passion that hearts and minds in the South and around the world were forever changed.
I know that God does not always appear to intervene when people are sick or dying or in danger. But what about the caring doctors and nurses that work overtime through the holidays? What about social workers who risk their lives to remove a battered child from angry, crack-infused parents? What about firemen who run into the fire?
I believe very strongly in the power of prayer, although I haven't an idea of what prayer is or how it works. I know I have prayed fervently for help in the depths of depression, and received a caring call minutes later from a loved one, out of the blue, just checking in. I think somehow God's ability to answer prayers is directly tied to the number of people who are tuned in to the cosmic prayer channel, looking to help. As St. Teresa noted, Christ has no body but ours, no feet with which to walk to do good, but ours, no hands with which to heal but ours, no eyes with which to look compassion on the world, without us. When we pray, my sense is that we connected to each other through a Holy Spirit infused, internet-like network of souls. For me, prayer has more to do with quantum physics than ancient history. Or maybe I just like science better. Peace. "
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