Sunday, February 16, 2014

Sometimes you need someone else to do the praying


Life is rough. Life can be full of challenges, frustrations and situations that you feel incapable of handling.   It's easy to think that being a Christian comes with a free pass at an easy life. After all, we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, right?  On the contrary, Christians are often some of the most conflicted people out there. We struggle with every day decisions, doubt and the push/pull between the godly life we try and lead and the world around us.

As my friend says, "this is the human condition."

Most religious people I know are good people. There are always exceptions to this, but my experience has been that people with faith try hard, mean the best, and are quick to repent when they have been erroneous in their ways. We are all just trying to do the best we can with the tools we have. 

This is awesome news because that means the majority of people are trying to be better people every day!  *fist pump!*

However, life happens to the best of us. The human condition of feelings, frustrations, angers and stress happen to us all. On a good day, we are balancing these conflicts through prayer, work, physical exercise, meditation, love and all things that God has shown us to be right about the way we live. 

And then the times come, when none of these habits are happening for us. There are days that even the best intentions and the strongest beliefs are overwhelmed by our humanity.   These are the times I have to call in prayer warriors that can do the praying for me, when I feel that I cannot articulate it myself. 

Case in point: I had a disagreement with an individual. This happens, however in this case there were many small frustrations that built up to this disagreement that finally tipped my patience and loving approach. I was mad. I think you could probably call it, "spitting nails mad."  I was right about the situation, I had done nothing wrong and yet, I was made to feel like a bad person time after time when I was only doing the right thing over and over. Based on my experience with this person, there would be no convincing them I was right, or change their opinion, so I knew that I need to let this go, and give it to God.

But I was mad. MAD.

My heart was beating fast, my blood pressure was up, my face was flushed and I felt like my hair was standing on end. MAD. Madmadmadmadmadmadmadmad.

And I was having a really hard time letting go of being mad. I was so mad, I couldn't formulate a prayer to give it to God so I could pass on from this situation and move back to greener, calmer, cooler, pastures. 

And so I called on a prayer warrior. I told my friend I knew I needed to pray and let this go, but I was having difficulty doing so, and I needed her to articulate those prayers for me in a way I could not. 

And she wrote me the most beautiful prayer. And she prayed it. And I felt it. She reminded me that my frustrations and angry were like rocks in a suitcase. Did I really want to lug them around with me on my journey?  No, I did not. And through my friend's prayer, I was able to start pulling the rocks from my suitcase one by one, and my emotional suitcase was so much lighter. 

Thank you Mary for your prayer. Xo. 

When you can't pray yourself, don't be afraid to ask someone else to do it for you.

If you don't know who to ask, comment below and I'll do the paying for you. It will be my version of paying it forward. 

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