Pray Your Boldest Prayer

Author: Amilee Beer
October 25, 2018
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

From the time we are young, our parents strive to teach us “good manners”.  We start with the simple things like “please” and “thank you”, and as we grow we move on to more nuanced ideas.  Always offer your guests something to eat and drink.  Don’t ask for food when you’re at a friend’s house.  Don’t take off your shoes in public.  Don’t speak too loudly.  Don’t point at people.  (Yes, these are all things I had specific difficulty with…)

But these are still all black and white.  As a teen, we are faced with even more nuanced ideas – should I ask Mom to drive me to a friend’s house, or has she already been driving me around to other activities all afternoon?  Should I ask what’s for dinner, or instead ask how I can help with dinner?  Should I ask my older siblings for help with my homework, or are they busy doing their own assignments?

We are often taught not to ask something that might be “too much to ask”.  We hesitate to ask for help in our struggles because we have been raised to be independent and responsible, which isn’t a bad thing, but that makes it hard to admit the things we really want and need sometimes.
In this week’s Gospel, the blind man named Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is walking by and calls out to him.  While many in the crowd told him to be quiet, Jesus hears him and beckons him to come near.  Without hesitation he jumps up, letting his cloak fall off and runs to Jesus.  And when Jesus asks him what he wants, he says, “I want to see.”  He doesn’t ask for food, or money, or fresh clothes, or a house.  He doesn’t say “Oh, well I’d like to see, but I know that’s too much to ask, so if you could just give me peace in my suffering, that would be enough.”  You might be surprised at how bold his request is.  But Jesus is not offended or surprised, he simply heals him and sends him on his way, and his sight was immediately restored.

How often do we go to God in prayer and truly ask for our greatest desire or our greatest need?  If someone we know has a serious cancer, we pray for their peace, we pray for the doctors to have wisdom, and we pray for their family members.  But do we pray for God to give them full recovery and healing, even if the doctors would say it’s not possible in their case?  Do we limit our prayers because we don’t want to ask “too much” of God, or even because we don’t believe it’s possible?  We know from Matthew 19:26 that with God, ALL things are possible.
If we were to get into a whole discussion here about why God seems to answer some prayers and not others, you’d need to scroll another 437 times to read the rest of this blog, so let’s just look at one image that illustrates this for us.  I recently heard prayers compared to planting seeds.  Let’s say Johnny Appleseed plants 10 seeds.  Is every one of those seeds going to grow into an apple tree, even if it gets all the water, nutrients, and sun that seeds usually need?  Maybe, and maybe not.  Let’s say only seeds #3, 5, 6, and 10 grow into trees.  That’s just how it works; it doesn’t mean the other seeds were bad, but Johnny isn’t the one that determines which seeds will grow into trees.  But one thing is for sure; if Johnny hadn’t planted seed #6, it wouldn’t have grown into an apple tree.  There’s no two ways about it.  Prayer can be like that; there are things that God may do because of our prayers that he wouldn’t have otherwise done.  He doesn’t “need” us, but he chooses to involve us in his work.

So this week in your prayers, don’t put limits on how God can work in your own life or someone else’s.  Pray your boldest prayer.  Pray the prayer that seems like it’s too much to ask.  Pray with the belief that with God, all things ARE possible.  There’s no magic formula, but it just might be God’s will to use your bold prayers to bring about something amazing.  That’s the kind of faith that healed the blind man, and that’s the kind of faith that does incredible things for us as well!
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