Be Real

Recently I was part of a small group discussion that focused on prayer. How do we do it? What does it accomplish? What is it OK to pray for? What’s the purpose of prayer? Volumes have been written about the subject of prayer, including answers to these questions from the perspective of various authors.

I want to suggest that the most important thing to remember when it comes to prayer is very simple: Be real.

Perhaps you remember from Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear that scene toward the end of the play when the Duke of Albany says, “The weight of this sad time we must obey/Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.”

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say . . . When you go to God in prayer, be real, be genuine, be honest, be authentic. Don’t try to impress anyone with your prayers – including God, by the way. Don’t try to impress. Just be yourself. Don’t worry about what words you use; don’t worry about how you put those words together.

You may have heard me refer before to a little book called Children’s Letters to God. Sometimes we can learn a lot from the simple insights of children. Here are some examples when it comes to authenticity in prayer:

Dear God: I think about you sometimes even when I’m not praying. Elliot.
Dear God: If you watch in church on Sunday, I will show you my new shoes. Mickey.
Dear God: I don’t ever feel alone since I found out about you. Nora.
Dear God: If you had let the dinosaurs not be extinct we would not have a country. You did the right thing. Jonathan.
Dear God: I did not think orange went with purple until I saw that sunset you made on Tuesday. That was so cool. Thank you, God. Love, Eugene.

Children know what it means to be genuine, real, authentic.

Ever been in a small group and maybe sitting in a circle and you’re having one of those prayers that goes around the circle with each person saying something, and you know that you’re going to have a turn pretty soon, and you’re sitting there thinking, “Four more people to go, three
more people to go, two more people to go, now it’s the person next to me. I’m next. What am I going to say? Will it come out all right? Are the subject and verb going to agree? What are the others going to think about what I’m sharing?”

Ever been there? Let it go. Whether it’s in the setting I described or when you’re alone, don’t worry about what to say and how to say it. Just be real with God. Share with God whatever it is that is going on with you, whatever it is that you’re going through, whatever it is that you’re feeling, whatever it is that’s on your mind. God wants to be a part of all those things.

See you in church!

Grace and Peace,