Please

If the word "help" falls from our lips most often in prayer, "please" is a close second.  Like the word, "Help", "Please" is a one-word prayer.  Sometimes I find myself uttering, "Please! God!" as if other words would be superfluous or just cannot find the right words to say.  I trust in that moment that God knows, even when I realize I don't fully realize all that is going on inside me.

"Please" often means that I have been brought to my knees.  It makes sense that "Please" follows "Help". When I ask for help, I am still actively engaged in whatever is going on.  I ask for help with holding up a heavy item or with editing something I have written.  But "help" is about partnership and working together. When I pray "Please", I may be stuck, I may not be moving at all, I may be all out of ideas, and all out of words (which as a pastor really says something!).  Please is vital in prayer because it reminds us we are fully dependent upon God in "whom we live and move and having our being". (Acts 17:28)

The quote from Acts is often offered, yet rarely do I pause and consider just how profound that statement truly is.  There is nothing I have done, do, or will do without God.  What Acts is saying is that my whole life, every move I make, and down to every cell in my DNA bares the fingerprints of God.  But when this becomes a given every second of our life, it is difficult to remain constantly aware of this truth...so I forget.  I start to think, "God, I've got today covered...You take a break, maybe grab a fro-yo."  But God is God and I am not.  "Please" re-orients my life.  And honestly, "please" disorients my life.  All of sudden I am really not as in control or as in charge as I like to think.  Please means that I am at the end of the rope.  At the same time, I also need to realize that I am at rope's end more often than I like to admit.  I wonder how often we keep trying to hang on when we really need to utter the simple word, "Please"...and then maybe let go!?

That is risky!  We might fall.  We might break through the lure of self-reliance.  We might actually tumble into the embrace of God.  On second thought, we will tumble into the embrace of God.  There may still be a thud as we land and we may be jarred as we land.  But there is still grace in that.

As you pray this week pay attention not only to the specifics of where you are asking for help, but also when words all want to raise their hands and be excused because they can't quite capture what is going on inside.  Where are you inviting God into your life with the simple word, "Please"?  And when you do, how do you sense the traces of God's grace in your life?

Blessings ~