Horror of horrors a letter from the Tax department! Next to “There is water in the basement”, nothing can throw you into a state of panic like a letter from the Tax department. They were questioning some contributions and with the help of a friend I was questioning their assessment of my account. So I wrote them a letter, with copies of my contributions, to explain where I was coming from. A nice, neat letter, carefully run off my printer and saved to my legal file. All very proper and professional.
All I needed was an envelope.
Now I save everything but somehow a somewhat used envelope just wouldn’t make much of an impression when it landed on the desk of this person to whom I had directed it.
But no, I couldn’t find a decent envelope in the whole mess of them…(all neatly wrapped with a large elastic.) So, I got down on my knees and there was a red box of envelopes carefully tucked into a corner stack of papers under the desk. I knew they were there somewhere!
So my semi-professional request to a higher power (the Canadian Government), will be sent off in a clean and non-recycled envelope and hopefully achieve the result I want.
I find life in the body often mimics life in the spirit…trying to explain to God just why you need or don’t need that particular development in your life and just how you would fix it if He would just listen to you…then you kind of want to send it off in a used and hackney manner that makes you feel you have done your job…now it is up to Him.
Sound familiar? If I made a request of a friend I would probably address them with respect and thank them for being there for me. I think sometimes we short change the Lord when we are speaking to Him. That does not deny the fact that He loves us and will always listen, but a rattled off prayer is not what He wants to hear…anymore than a rattled off request to a friend is what they want to hear.
Of course there are times when you call out to the Lord for help, without thinking about it…He always knows when you need it and He is always there, but generally our prayers are not quite so specific…’ bless the kids, keep me well, help the helpless, and don’t let it rain on the parade.’
Sometime we need to be reminded that it is an honor to come before the Lord God and speak to Him. Christ made this possible. Let’s not treat that privilege with disrespect.
Photo by Blake Burkhart via Flickr//CC
