The other night my wife, my daughter and I watched the movie “The Help.” As the movie ended the tears continued. My heart was breaking for men, women and children entrenched in overt and covert human trafficking.

I remembered why I pray: Because I am desperate for a power greater than my own to do that which I cannot.

Josh Groban’s song The Prayer is one such prayer. He begins: 1

I pray you’ll be our eyes
And watch us where we go
And help us to be wise
In times when we don’t know

“Grace is God walking into your world with a sparkle in his eye and an offer that’s hard to resist. ‘Sit still for a bit. I can do wonders with this mess of yours.’ ” 1

Life and the challenges we face can leave us perplexed. This “mess” can bring distress. Rather than rush into action, or sit in sullen solitude God calls us to pray.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” 2

Years ago some friends and I rented snowshoes and drove into A-Basin (Arapahoe Basin) in Colorado. When we arrived we strapped on our snowshoes.

Though we were all about the same size with the same size snowshoe, no one seemed to have any trouble, except me. For some reason I kept dropping through the snow-pack. I kept getting stuck.

The worst was when I had one leg plunged deep into the snow all the way to my groin and the other flat on the surface. While trying to extricate my left leg my right leg plunged through the snow nearly reaching the depth of the other. I howled something impolite as I realized that I was now going to dig myself out of the snow while wearing my snowshoes.

Yesterday my friend and pastor Steve Wiens recommended three prayers for Holy Week this year:

1. God, reveal where I’m enslaved and set me free.

2. God, reveal where I’m wandering, and help me remember my covenant.

3. God, reveal where I’m hidden and help me to see.

While thinking about the value of praying these prayers these quotes from Tilden H. Edwards came to mind:

Some of us are more naturally night people or morning people. Our situations further influence what time is best to set aside.

Back to the door
Laptop on the table

Earphones in my ears
Music playing

If I sit in this coffee shop for more than an hour I’ll watch people come and go.
– Maybe I’ll smile at them
– Maybe I’ll nod a hello
Usually we’re silent strangers.

A couple of minutes ago two guys sat at the table behind me.
I knew that they were there three feet away.
I barely even looked their way.

It’s an interesting bubble of space: being close to strangers.

Bubble-Burst

My music stopped
I heard my neighbors talking
They’re planning the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast

We’re examining the power of secrets this week. If you missed the first few, here they are: Hidden Away, Our Hiding and Secrets & Hiding.

Let’s admit two things:
1. I hide my secrets
2. You hide your secrets

While we might protect our secrets for good reasons, sometimes we don’t. Not only that, but sometimes our secrets are the very thing that holds us back from making hope-filled, positive decisions in life.

We stay “stuck.” Stuck in place. Stuck and not making positive changes in our lives.

I had some shame stirring as I woke up: rude to my wife, messy with my stuff, snoring, gingivitis, etc. God knows I can digress if I sit in my junk for long.

When I do, I felt like a wreck. I know some of you have felt the same way:

I’m not even strong enough for myself
I’m falling to pieces
Honestly don’t care about anything anymore
Can’t go on living like this
I need someone to listen. No one can help me.

Fortunately, God is listening.

On the way to work in the back of my mind was playing:

I wrote my first Spoken Word poem today.

Some would say, “I wish he would crush me.
I wish he would reach out his hand and kill me…
But in my distress I cried out to the Lord;
yes, I prayed to my God for help.
He heard me…my cry to him reached his ears…

He reached down from heaven and rescued me;
he drew me out of deep waters.

For he will conceal me there when troubles come;
he will hide me in his sanctuary.
He will place me out of reach on a high rock…

Lord,

You are our lamp,
you turn our darkness into light.
You are our light and our salvation

When we believe that,
do we need to fear anyone?
DO we need to be afraid of anyone?

LORD, help us to trust you as the stronghold of our lives, because when Jesus spoke to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

That’s what we need:
your leadership and clarity.

Please Lord help us to show your love and light to everyone we meet.

I can’t shake how captivated I am by this song.

It’s a call to remember how important it is to be mindful how needy we as: as individuals and as a society.

This visualization of Pray Where You Are uploaded to YouTube by Bill Peterson really captures the song’s themes well.

As our country prepares for our election I feel it’s even more important to pray for our nation than I do most days.

Pray Where You Are by Lost Dogs