Just In Time

Years ago, Christian singer Gloria Gaither told a story about washing dishes one ordinary evening.  When supper was over, everyone in the family suddenly disappeared, and she was left with cleaning up the kitchen by herself.  She admits that she was both angry and wallowing in self-pity (a volatile combination) as she scrubbed pots and washed plates.  Steam, perhaps, was coming out of both her ears.

She was about half-way finished with the task when her youngest son ran into the kitchen.  “MOM!!! You gotta come quick.”

Gloria was accustomed to Benjy’s bursts of energy and urgency.  Without even looking at him, she said, “I’m cleaning up from supper.  I’ll be there in a minute.”

He ran outside the back door.

Within a few seconds, he rushed back inside.  “MOM!!! You’ve got to come NOW.”

“Is anyone hurt?”

“No, you just NEED to come NOW.”  He raced back outside, leaving the door wide open.

With a humpf, Gloria dried her hands on a dish towel and reluctantly followed him.

Standing on the deck, Benjy frantically pointed out into the backyard.  Gloria glanced over and then stood astonished by the most beautiful sunset she had ever seen, bathing the entire horizon in radiant colors beyond description.  In another minute, she would have missed the entire sacred display.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We don’t often face prayer with such urgency.  We’ll respond to a request with “I’ll be praying for you.”  When indeed, God nudges us to pray NOW with the person.

God is not limited by time, nor by our response to Him, but in our hesitation or lack of response, not unlike Gloria, we are often the ones who miss out on the wonder.

I was reminded the other day of receiving a phone call from a friend years ago towards the end of a class at the YMCA.  I waited a few minutes until class was over to return her call, sitting in the parking lot on a frigid morning.  As my friend poured out a desperate situation with her extended family, I found myself saying to her, “Let’s pray right now,” not something I would have ordinarily offered at the time.   I prayed out loud, not fully understanding the magnitude of the situation, but prayed immediately for the situation at hand.

After the amen, my friend said, “You prayed the words I didn’t have.”

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  Romans 8. 26

And sometimes God uses us to do that.

Seize the moment, whenever it occurs, sending a text when God nudges us, reaching out with a phone call, or praying on the spot in a parking lot.

It does not matter to God if we pray now or later.  God is alive and active beyond the boundaries of time.  It is not that God will hear something different if we pray immediately, or in the middle of the night, or later.  But in praying with someone in the moment, it is not just what God hears, but what is heard by those we are praying with.  There is a recognized magnitude in praying together in the now.

There is nothing more encouraging than knowing right now in this present moment at my time of need or struggle, someone is praying, and God is responding.

Henri J. M. Nouwen, Dutch priest, professor, author and theologian, reflected:  “Then, even while life continues to seem harried, while it continues to have hard moments, we say, ‘Something good is happening amid all this.’  We get glimpses of how God might be working out His purpose in our days.”

Through prayer, God invites us into His ongoing wonders.

And when we don’t pray, God still brings about His purposes.  We are just the ones who miss out on recognizing His Presence.  God sets in motion His hidden order of the world, turning the invisible into the visible.  …Who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Romans 4. 17  

In these dog days of a hot Tennessee summer with near-record temperatures, I have learned that if I’m going to run today, I need to go now in the cool of the morning. 

When the opportunity arises, or when God nudges my thoughts, I need not hesitate, but if I am going to pray about it, I need to pray now. A whole lot of things are just waiting to jam into my day and whine for my attention.  And then, what about the praying? Well, let me just finish the dishes first.

God doesn’t wear a stop watch, as if time is running out, but in praying, there is always an element of urgency.  Praying is rarely the shortest (or quickest) distance between two points.  The critical factor is not when we pray, but that we pray.

Through praying, God invites us into the wildness of His glory….the God who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy… Isaiah 57. 15

I may not know what to do, but I can pray.  I can pray now.