His Prayer Had Swearing In It
Having grown up in a Christian family that prayed together every night at the dinner table and went to church an average of two times per week, I’ve heard a lot of prayers.
At least 25,000 prayers.
Some of them were my own.
Some were eloquent.
Others were cute and rhymed.
Quite a few were stuffed with filler words…
But there is one prayer I had the privilege of hearing that stands as my personal favorite.
A young man responded to the “get right with God” invitation at the end of our church service.
He came forward, and I met him at the steps of the stage to pray with him.
I explained what we were doing—then led him in one of those “repeat after me” prayers.
I’d done this before. So many times, in fact, that I had the little prayer memorized. It was a good one too.
Feeling like a bit of a spiritual superstar, I was tempted to pat myself on the back for a job well done…
But then I started to think, “this isn’t even about me and my perfected ‘get right with God’ prayer”.
So I decided to try something new.
I looked at the kid and said, “now it’s your turn—you pray with your own words—and tell God what you’re feeling”.
He shrugged his shoulders and said “OK”.
After a pause, he looked up at me and said, “I’m not very good at this…”
I smiled and encouraged him. “Just say what’s on your heart. God will love it.”
So he launched into his prayer: “God, um… thanks for forgiving me, ’cause I’ve done a lot of shitty things…”
He had a few more lines too. I don’t remember all the specifics; I just know they were as unpolished as his opening line.
I was immediately struck with two distinct feelings in that moment:
1) I was nervous that someone around us would hear the language and judge.
2) I felt like this was probably the most pure, honest, unpretentious prayer I’d ever heard. And I was sure God loved it.
Yup, that kid’s prayer with swearing in it is still my favorite.
It kinda reminds me of the first two beatitudes:
“Blessed are those who are poor at being spiritual, for the kingdom of heaven is well-suited for ordinary people.”
“Blessed are those who are mourning, grieving, hurting—and aren’t pretending everything’s OK. Because of their honesty and vulnerability, they will be comforted.”
Sometimes we get too good at doing Christianity. We become spiritual superstars and we like to pat ourselves on the back.
And sometimes we are plastic people—awesome all the time—and completely fake.
We need to be reminded…
God’s kingdom is well-suited for ordinary people, and honesty and vulnerability are a blessing.
Quoting Rick Warren: “God uses brokenness far more than he uses strength or talent. Talent makes you look good. Brokenness makes God look good.”
