“Just a Little Talk with Jesus”

If you’re old enough, or from a certain part of the country, you might remember the Gospel song, “Just a Little Talk With Jesus” It’s about praying to Jesus, telling him “all about your troubles” and knowing that he will hear your faintest cry,” meaning prayer. Our thought might be, yours and mine and that of millions of people, that this is all too simple to be true. With our more high church traditions, we have moved beyond simple prayer to begging, pleading, fasting, lamenting, beseeching and all other manner of prayer.

And it gets us nowhere!

Art: Sampo Kaikkonen

I am discovering that lots of people these days have no need for prayer; they don’t do it, or believe in its power, or count on the fact that it can change their lives. Truth is, many everyday people truly need their lives changed, but have no confidence at all that prayer can actually change anything.

If you think I am about to launch into a string of words on prayer, like a sermon or an object lesson or a devotional, all meant to change your opinion about prayer, you would be wrong. After all though, I am an ordained minister. Convincing is what ministers do! But convincing you of anything about the importance of prayer is the last thing I want to do. Each person must decide that for herself, or his self.

Let there be an opening into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos, where you find the peace you did not think possible and see what shimmers within the storm.

~John O’ Donohue

I would dare to conjecture that there is no time in history that needed prayer and peace any more than our current time in history. When we look back on today in a decade, we will see farmers losing their crops, businesses losing their solvency, families losing each other, races still warring, LGBTQI+ folks still struggling, poverty still having its way, elders finding no support when they need it, juvenile justice centers incarcerating hundreds of young people, wars among political parties, wars among races, wars among tribes, wars among nations.

Not a clear path to peace to be sure. Swords have not yet been made into plowshares or swords into pruning hooks. (Isaiah 2:4) The wolf is not lying peacefully with that sweet baby lamb we see in all the pictures and figurines, the beautiful image of “the peaceable kingdom.” We need that in these days, in our cities and towns, churches and schools, in our homes and in our hearts.

May it be so.