Five W's and an H

 

Walk about Zion, go around her,

number her towers,

consider well her ramparts,

go through her citadels,

that you may tell the next generation

              that this is God,

our God forever and ever.

He will guide us forever.

                       Psalm 48. 12-14

 

That is how to pray.

In journalism school, I learned the fundamentals of gathering information for what I needed to write.  The five W’s and an H:  Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How.  Those six questions helped me to discover the truth of a matter, uncover the solutions, examine what was before me, and create a response.  I could not just sit down and write what I thought. 

I learned firsthand the importance of using those basic questions when interviewing, because sometimes I had only one opportunity, one interview, one shot at covering a subject.  I needed to cover all my bases.  More than once I forgot to ask an obvious question. 

And in the process of asking all the questions, more often than not, something deeper would be revealed that I hadn’t considered, and I didn’t even know to ask – the most interesting aspect, the underlying reason, the fascinating story behind it.

Do we pray on all those layers? Numbering the towers, going through the citadels. Seeking not particular answers of our own choosing, but seeking God?  God savors our questions.  Ask Me. He cherishes our prayers in golden bowls.

Have we prayed all around this situation?  Observing, thinking about all of the angles, praying our way through, turning over every rock, opening closet doors.  God guides us even as we pray.  Who does this impact? Where have You strategically placed me?  Have I considered that You are in this?  These questions help us to realize that God is not just about the parts, but the whole story, leaving nothing out, in what we consider significant and even in what we dismiss as insignificant.  We will never fully know how eternal are the tiniest details.

When we pray though every dimension, we become aware of what has been there all along.  Consider well her ramparts.  We may never have noticed that dimension of God’s love and grace before.  Right there in front of us. 

Who does this impact?

What is God directing us to do about it?

Where do we go from here?

When is God’s timing in this?  Shoes tied on, ready to roll or faithful to stay.

Why are we praying about this?

And then, if we have worked our way through all of the W’s, then and only then, God leads us to the big H.  How do we do it?   God never abandons us on the side of the road.  Follow Me into this. 

Prayer is how God reveals Himself to us.  And sometimes as we seek Him, He leads us through layers of complexity to a more comprehensive realization.  God is never done telling us how much He loves us.

There is an ongoing completeness in prayer that is not about “answers” at all.

In 1967, when seventeen year old Joni Eareckson dove into a lake, she came back to the surface as a quadriplegic.  After months recuperating in the hospital, the biggest change came when she stopped crying out “Why, God?”  and started praying, “What, God?”   And over time, inch by inch, God revealed Himself and unfolded the “what.”  She is now 73 years old, an active advocate for disability rights, author, artist, and founder of an international organization for the disabled community.

“What, God?” is almost always beyond our radar.  Are we trying to pray away those hard things God is using to actually mold and strengthen us spiritually?   And how He is revealing Himself to us?  When we pray, God enlarges our universe. 

Prayer is not telling God what to do, nor just throwing Him a quick and impersonal “Just show me what to do.”  But responding to Him, walking all around it, seeking, peeking, letting God reveal Himself.  Asking all the questions.  What is the real situation here?  Am I walking around it or walking away?  What is my attitude toward it...or them?  Am I willing to serve and honor God in this?  Am I prepared to forgive?  Is it a matter of my own faithfulness or selfishness?  What is one thing I can do?  Have I considered not just the difficulty or the solution, but God’s hand in this?  Your will, O Lord, not mine.

Everything is not obvious at first glance.  Prayer is walking with God through it.  He reveals not just the details, but Himself along the way.  And changes our hearts.  Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Philippians 4. 8

Pray about these things.  There is a lot more at stake.  There always is.

We pray, not just to point out to others or tell the next generation what God has done, what God is doing, and that this is God.  But that we ourselves would more fully realize who He is.

There is so much more that we can know about God.  But we can grasp this much:

“God is vaster and more mysterious than we can fathom, and yet He has revealed Himself.  He showed up and told us who He is.  God has spoken.  And what He has said, in Christ, is that He loves us and is for us.  This is the fundamental poetry that orders all of our lives,” writes Tish Harrison Warren in her book Prayer in the Night.

And on that reality, we can stake our lives.