Keep Rowing (07/19/2024)

One of my favorite sayings whose origin I can’t remember is “Pray to God and keep rowing to shore.” It’s one of my favorites because it makes sense. I know that I need the LORD and that I need to bring all my needs and all my hopes to the LORD in whom I live and move and have my being (Acts 17:28). But prayer isn’t a time to dump what I can’t handle; it is also a time to receive that which the LORD calls me to do and be in the moment. This reminds me that I am to keep working here, opening myself to the LORD’s grace to do what I can and must in the moment.

I’ve known a large number of people who have lived this wisdom out loud and shown me the path. There’s the woman I have watched walk the sidewalks around my home daily. I know she is praying as she walks. I know she returns home and cares for her sister who is going through cancer treatments. She prays but she also keeps rowing. There’s a young family that is struggling financially right now. They pray together as a family, pouring out their needs to the LORD, but they also rise every day, show up for work, work together at home, and lovingly make sacrifices for one another. They pray but they keep rowing.

Prayer isn’t a spiritual catalog – order it up and it will be delivered the next day. Prayer is the humble acknowledgement of One greater, One whose love and wisdom exceeds ours exponentially. Prayer is bringing our needs and hopes to the LORD and opening ourselves to the LORD’s graces and gifts in response.  As C.S. Lewis eloquently said years ago, “Prayer doesn’t change God, it changes us.”

We lift our needs and the needs of our loved ones to the LORD. And the LORD fuels the love that tends to the matter at hand. The LORD gifts us for service to others even when we are worried and weary. The LORD gifts us to accompany others even when we don’t want to travel that painful path. The LORD gifts us with insight and vision even when we want to close our eyes to those who have hurt us. Prayer not only brings the LORD’s love and grace to brood over our situation and to bring life and loving kindness forth from pain and need; prayer brings about a change in us as we open ourselves to the LORD’s power and presence at work in us and through us.

As we continue our journey of faith, hope and love, let us continue to be people of prayer who keep rowing to shore knowing the LORD accompanies us every inch of the way.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.