Last Ditch

So it's the final minute, and the team you're head-coaching is fighting for the lead in game 7 of the NBA Finals. You're down by four, so a comeback is possible...but the other team has been holding your team at bay all game, quashing your every strategy. It's down to the wire, and the five you've got on the floor haven't been cutting the mustard. You need a Savior. You need someone who will step up to the pressure with fierce finesse, clever on offense and relentless on defense. You need a proven champion. So you look down your bench line and study the string of athletes at your disposal. Two stand out from the restless lot: Michael Jordan is one of them. Your mind is tossed. Your palms are greasy. You're straining for a sign, but you make up your mind in a flustered climax of indecision: you choose the other player, who just so happens to be none other than the great...Steve Urkel.

Needless to say, this is a bit ridiculous, yes? I mean c'mon, a toss-up between a 6-time NBA champion & Hall of Famer...and a jeans-and-suspenders Geek Hall of Famer? Is this a tough decision at all? But relating to many people's view of God, the Urkel decision is pretty logical.

This daydream started a couple weeks back when I was at work. I overheard a woman's phone conversation as she passed by. All I caught was a well-used expression in our culture, said with a half-hearted sigh: "Well, I don't know what else to do, I'll just pray for ya." Yeah sure, pray for 'em. Might as well, right? Wouldn't hurt. Eh, who knows, maybe something good will come of it...probably not, but hey, at least ya tried, huh? - sound like the viewpoint of someone you know?...or maybe your own?

As I heard this woman's flippant comment, it struck me - this is an epidemic view of prayer. So many people pray like it's a last-ditch effort, the backup plan to your backup plan's backup plan. How did prayer get reduced to the understudy's third cousin twice-removed? I think the answer people would give the most is this: "I dunno, it just seems like God doesn't really respond every time, especially when I need him most."

Our opinion of prayer has dwindled to mediocrity because of this - we are hesitant to give the important things to a God that sometimes feels distant. And that's understandable. We wouldn't entrust our criminal charges and impending court date to an attorney on an extended vacation, would we? That's what a lot of people have come to believe in God as - someone who is powerful enough to take care of business, but lacks the reason or motivation to attend to the lowly peons of this Earth.

It's hard to change someone's mind about this because every opinion like this stems from personal experience. "Where was God when my mom was on her deathbed?" "Where was God when I filed for divorce?" "Where was God when the eviction papers came?" "Where was God when my kid turned into a street thug?" It's a hard issue to address, simply because there are so many emotions tied to this subject, so many "been-there-done-that's" in play. So when I say "there's hope in prayer," even now you may have felt a twinge, a subtle dismissing notion or an unspoken longing of "if that were only true..."

I'm no expert on prayer, but I do know this: God did not intend any part of our relationship with him to be stressful or burdensome. If it is, there's a hitch in your giddy-up. That's why Jesus himself said "I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." If we have trouble trusting God by talking with him and handing him our burdens, our relationship with him is basically built on a self-serving basis. Sound like an unfair assumption? You're right, I don't mean to assume what God means to you. But here's what I do mean: if you struggle with approaching God, you may have the notion that God exists to make sure your life is perfect (enter buzzword - "blessed"). 

Here's some news for you - good news, actually: God does not exist to make sure your life goes peachy-keen. "How is that good news, Shane?" In the assumption that God is our personal genie, we miss the fact that God is a loving Father. Who would you rather have in your life a genie or a loving Father? Depending on your answer to that question, some red flags might be shooting up concerning your view of God. The difference between a "your wish is my command" genie and a "my command is good for you" loving Father is that a good parent exercises unconditional love. That includes "tough love" and "constructive love." Being loving isn't always walks in the park and ice cream cones. Sometimes a good parent shows he loves his child most through not allowing his child to participate in activities that could compromise the child's integrity. Or sometimes a parent's love is best displayed when letting the child figure out the facts of life for himself instead of spelling everything out for him. Or maybe the best way a parent could show their unconditional love is by saying no, so as not to enable their child's downfall or addiction. Or maybe some of the best proof of a parent's love for their child is to let them walk away, making room for them to arrive at the realization that true love was always waiting for them back home.

We are so spoiled when it comes to God. If he doesn't bend to our every whim, we throw a tantrum and stomp off in disgust, shaking an angry fist and threatening to never speak to him again. So it really is good news that God doesn't conform to our idea of what's right. If he did, we would have a marionette divinity, playing God from our positions as puppeteers. That would be messed up, let me tell ya. The world is a broken place, but to think everything should go the way we feel it should would often make for an even more mess-up world. 

Granted, we do have the ability to envision what's best on an honest scale. We're not totally depraved. We can imagine and expect what would actually be ideal. And guess what? God put that ability in us. We all have a vision of heaven set deep within us. At the core of our humanity is still Adam and Eve, the ones who experienced what God intended humanity to live in: paradise. We are all still looking for paradise in this fallen state of humanity, but we never find it outside of the source of paradise itself - the Creator - do we? We wander the earth like Adam and Eve banished from the garden (for their own good, by the way), looking for what's right in the world and blaming God when things don't turn up daisies...all while wiping the juices of the forbidden fruit from our lips. We are guilty as guilty gets, and our view of what the perfect Father God "should and shouldn't do" does not come with his welcome, just as a still-maturing, hormone-frenzied teen doesn't always win his father's agreement on what is best for the teen - and the entire family for that matter.

So if God has been your last-ditch effort, maybe it's time to ask why. If praying and talking with him about your beautiful, messy life seems to be a contrived, last-resort response, maybe it's time to rethink your prayer life - and more foundationally, your view of who God is. Believe it or not, God's track record is a lot more trust-worthy than any Steve Urkel you could substitute him with. All the other options on the bench might seem productive, but why settle when you can call on the one who made you, who knows your inmost being? Who would you trust to give you valuable life counsel: a friend you met at that one party a few months ago, or the loving parent who raised you and knows you inside and out? I'm sure the one with the most intimate knowledge of who you are would be the best choice, wouldn't you? So try it out - keep calm and talk to Jesus...and post a comment below to let me know how it goes!