here<\/a> it is again. Now back to regularly scheduled blogging.]<\/p>\nHe raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD\u2019s, and on them he has set the world. \u2013 1 Samuel 2:8<\/em><\/p>\nHannah\u2019s Prayer, a very clever person observed yesterday, is really perfect for our time. It\u2019s so easy to look at the endless cycle of news and trouble and conclude that God is tired, or busy, or worrying about something else. It\u2019s up to us, maybe, to sort things out and make the world ok. But how can we? What could a single person possibly do? Hannah\u2019s Prayer is a great, thrilling comfort to the downcast and discouraged.<\/p>\n
The point at which she prays her prayer the religious system is a corrupted wreck. Eli\u2019s sons are compromising the worship of the Lord, cheating the people, and generally ruining everything. Eli sits by helplessly, gluttonous and sanguine, ready to reprove not the wicked, his sons perhaps, but the true worshipper, Hannah.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always liked Hannah. She\u2019s an easy lady to get along with as you\u2019re reading through the bible. Her life, like most of ours, is a mixed bag. On one hand her husband really loves her. On the other hand, there\u2019s her co-wife. The affection and love of her husband isn\u2019t ever quite enough, much to his consternation, to overwhelm the bitterness of her spirit about not having a child and having to endure Peninnah\u2019s exaltation. This happens to me all the time\u2013minus the co-wife. I have it really good, but I am more than willing to let the bitterness of whatever it might be tip the balance between joy and grief so that I always land on the side of grief.<\/p>\n
But praise the Lord. When Hannah goes to pray\u2013because that\u2019s never a bad thing to do\u2013both God and Eli tell her to suck it up buttercup because you know how few women have husbands that really love them and you don\u2019t need a child you can just turn that frown upside down\u2026oh wait, that\u2019s not what happens.<\/p>\n
For true. When you have something in your life that is overwhelming you, even if you feel like it shouldn\u2019t be, even if it should be out weighed by all the good, it\u2019s something you should pray about. And it\u2019s good to pray with a full measure\u2013pressed down, shaken together, running over\u2013of desperation. You stand there, wherever you are, or sit there, or lie buried in your bed, and you beg God for what you want.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to go all holy for a minute and admit that the thing that\u2019s really been bothering me is that every week, somewhere in the world, there\u2019s a mass killing. And the more killings there are, the more impotent, corrupt, and foolish the powers and principalities that are supposedly on the side of democracy and freedom look and become. I stand in the shower, railing at God, as helpless as Hannah. She couldn\u2019t produce life. I can\u2019t produce goodness. That\u2019s where we all are, helpless.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the thing, even though Eli\u2013the perfect decadent modern man\u2013told her off for being drunk, so clueless was he that he couldn\u2019t distinguish between devotion and debauchery, God is not so hapless and helpless. God heard, and saw, and answered her prayer.<\/p>\n
And here is where her prayer, like Mary\u2019s, is so necessary for our age. Because when God answered her prayer, he didn\u2019t fix everything up ship shape in the near term. In fact, very shortly after Hannah praises God for his sovereign righting of all wrongs everywhere, Israel is plunged into war, Eli and his sons die, the Ark is captured by the Philistines, and a baby is born whose name gets to be \u201cthe glory of the Lord has departed from Israel\u201d. If you didn\u2019t know better, you\u2019d think things got worse instead of better.<\/p>\n
I mention Mary because the pattern in I Samuel is a foretaste of what\u2019s on the dock for Jesus. God is going to judge the wicked! It\u2019s going to be so great! Except that Israel is The Wicked. And before coming in glory with a sword, God absorbs all that wickedness in himself and dies. Mary stands there at the cross, heartbroken, gazing up at glory of the Lord, broken, bleeding. It\u2019s as unexpected as the Ark of God coming back laden with tumors and mice, fashioned out of gold, the place of God\u2019s presence bearing the ugliness and sin of the world.<\/p>\n
But the near term isn\u2019t all there is. It\u2019s the long game, eternity even, that matters. So we keep praying, crying out, keeping our eyes fixed on the One who owns the pillars of the world. If other people mistake you in your desperate prayer for being unhinged, crazy, helpless, well, don\u2019t worry about them. God is the one who matters and he is never mistaken. And in the end he wins.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[Note about my poor tiny podcast whose link I broke yesterday, here it is again. Now back to regularly scheduled blogging.] He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2373,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,48,58],"class_list":["post-4842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading-the-bible","tag-anglicanism","tag-just-plain-spiritual","tag-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\n
Desperate Times Call For Desperate Prayer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Desperate Times Call For Desperate Prayer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Preventing Grace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-17T10:32:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Kennedy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/\",\"name\":\"Desperate Times Call For Desperate Prayer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-17T10:32:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-07-17T10:32:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/41b88caa73803c3767a1bbd8722774f1\"},\"description\":\"He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Desperate Times Call For Desperate Prayer\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/\",\"name\":\"Preventing Grace\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/41b88caa73803c3767a1bbd8722774f1\",\"name\":\"Anne Kennedy\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7e11f6837fe0689905ef34797be59b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7e11f6837fe0689905ef34797be59b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Anne Kennedy\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/author\/akennedy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Desperate Times Call For Desperate Prayer","description":"He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Desperate Times Call For Desperate Prayer","og_description":"He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/","og_site_name":"Preventing Grace","article_published_time":"2016-07-17T10:32:44+00:00","author":"Anne Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Kennedy","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/","name":"Desperate Times Call For Desperate Prayer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-07-17T10:32:44+00:00","dateModified":"2016-07-17T10:32:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/41b88caa73803c3767a1bbd8722774f1"},"description":"He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2016\/07\/17\/desperate-times-call-for-desperate-prayer\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Desperate Times Call For Desperate Prayer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/","name":"Preventing Grace","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/41b88caa73803c3767a1bbd8722774f1","name":"Anne Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7e11f6837fe0689905ef34797be59b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7e11f6837fe0689905ef34797be59b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Anne Kennedy"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/author\/akennedy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}