Sometimes, I feel like the man who had enough with life’s difficulties and went to live in a monastery.
Once in the monastery, the man was instructed to speak only two words per year.
After his first year, he met with his abbot. His two words, “Bed hard.”
After his second year, he told his abbot, “Food bad.”
Finally, on his third year, he came to the abbot’s office and said, “I quit.”
“I’m not surprised,” the abbot responded. “You’ve done nothing but complain since you arrived.”
My complaints are more mundane. I fret over lost keys.
When she hears me muttering about problems, my wife asks, “Have you prayed about it?”
I say, “Honestly, my prayers would sound more like complaining.”
“What’s wrong with that?” she asks.
Her question inspired me to think about a guy who did a fair bit of complaining: Moses.
You know about Moses. He bugged the Egyptian pharaoh to free the Jewish people from slavery. Once the people were
liberated, Moses ran his egress route through the relentless heat of the Sinai Desert.
His people quickly forgot their freedom and started whining about the lack of good takeout food. (Read the Biblical version in Numbers 11.)
Moses resented the situation. He asked God, “Why are you treating me this way? What did I do to deserve this? Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people?”
He continued. “If this is how you intend to treat me, do me a favor and kill me. I’ve had enough.”
Instead, God threw down a challenge and told Moses, “Gather together 70 men from among the leaders of Israel, men whom you know to be respected and responsible, and you won’t have to carry the whole thing alone.”
In the end, Moses wasn’t struck dead for his audacious request. Quite the opposite. God answered the prayer by providing help from Moses’ friends.
I don’t pretend to know how prayer works. But I think Moses’ prayer was effective for two reasons.
First, the prayer was simple and direct.
It wasn’t flowery and packed with analogies, metaphors or obtuse tangents. God likes direct words.
When I encounter someone complaining about their raw deal, I tell them: Stop gossiping about God. Talk to God directly, not behind his back.
Go right up to God (wherever you talk to God) and say, “Hey, God! My life stinks!”
Then turn it into prayers Anne Lamott describes in her book, “Traveling Mercies.”
“Here are the two best prayers I know: ‘Help me, help me, help me’ and ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’”
Second, Moses’ prayer worked because God knew it was honest.
It’s a prayer with various wordings, but the gist is, “I’m powerless to do anything by myself. I need help.”
It was the same kind of prayer my wife challenged me to pray.
A little later, she asked, “Find your keys yet?”
“No, but I think God’s given me a plan to find them,” I said.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “How do you feel about having 70 readers come over and help me look for my keys?”
“Do you have 70 readers?”
Luckily, I didn’t need to answer. Like a miracle, I noticed the keys sitting on the kitchen counter.
Norris Burkes can be reached at comment@thechaplain.net. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento. Burkes is available for public speaking at civic organizations, places of worship, veterans groups and more. For details and fees, visit thechaplain.net.
