A Prayer About My Whining
Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Isaiah 40:27-29 Gracious Father, I remember my parent’s very loud “get-over-it” body language when I would whine as a child. Whether weary from the forever car ride on a trip in a non-air-conditioned care, having to eat canned asparagus or beef liver, or sitting in the waiting room of the dentist’s office, to complain was to invoke “the look”. I understood the genesis and gist of “the look” later when I became a parent. None of us likes to be on the other end of a whine.
Today my utter delight is to know that as your child, you will never be disgusted with me. You will never roll your eyes at me. You will never slam a door in my face. You will never be irritated with me or shame me. The only look you give me reminds me of your welcoming heart. Though you find no pleasure in my whining, you find all and only pleasure in your Son, Jesus, and you have hidden my life in his.
Thus today, Jesus, though it seems like heaven isn’t paying attention to some very important things in my heart, life and story, I hear you say to me in the gospel, “Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened… you will find rest, because I will give you rest.” Jesus you took the ultimate abandonment from the Father on the cross that I might be assured I will never be disregarded or abandoned. I am weary, he is not. I lack wisdom, he does not. He is God, I am not.
Lord, though you may not answer me the way I want you to answer, I hear again and receive your promise of all the strength and power I need for my present weakness. Turn my whining into worship this day, oh gracious and ever-present God.