Similarly, the spirit also helps us out in our weakness. For example, we don’t know beans about praying, but the Spirit himself speaks up for our unexpressed concerns. And he who x-rays our hearts understands the Spirit’s approach, since the Spirit represents Christians before God.”
Romans 8:26-27, The Cotton Patch Gospel
Clarence Jordan (translator of The Cotton Patch Gospel) is right. I don’t know beans about praying. Prayer absolutely blows my mind: God, the creator of the universe, wants to be in communication with me? I really can’t grasp that.
But I pray anyway. I pray to music. I pray Scripture. And I pray for loved ones. I pray for Jaime who just lost her dad, and Megan who recently had a stroke. I pray for teachers who work tirelessly for our children only to be told over and again that their talents are cheap and their sacrifices are insignificant. I pray for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay and for U.S. leaders who are making decisions about their future. I pray for fire fighters and police officers, city workers and public servants. And I pray that one day we will once and forever learn that black lives really do matter, that a hoodie doesn’t constitute a threat, and that racism is real and rampant.
But then I hear the latest news and I have to fight to keep from drowning in the waves of despair flooding cyberspace and TV land. When will we stop giving platforms to fear mongers who stir up contention and elevate anxiety? When will we put an end to gun violence? When will we start to appreciate this beautiful place called Earth and take seriously our responsibility to care and keep it? How long, O Lord, until we stop fussing and start working towards compromise and unity? Will your Kingdom ever come?
Yeah, I gotta tell ya. I don’t know beans about praying.
But thanks be to God, knowing is not necessary. Romans 8:26-27 (NRSV) says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
And when I read that I sigh: a sigh of relief. I sigh because suddenly I remember, I’m not alone. Neither is Jaime or Megan, teachers or detainees, leaders or workers, oppressed or oppressor. I sigh, I breathe, remembering that the Spirit is breathing with me, magnifying my sighs, and translating them into words that I can’t seem to find, building them into bridges from the hearts of the hurting to the very heart of God. I sigh with relief because as I do, I find that the Spirit is already there. The bridge is already built. The words don’t have to be found. “And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes” — for me. Even though I don’t know beans about praying.