Granted

We are creatures of language, so we use our words to ask for things we deeply want. We ask others to grant us what we do not have and often cannot procure for ourselves. It started when we were infants and cried to be fed, cleaned, comforted, and rocked to sleep. After that, it never stopped: “Please, grant me this; grant me that,” it is a part of life. Perhaps we sometimes ask for things we don’t need or should get for ourselves. Still, we must learn to ask when we need help.

In our prayer lives, part of the mix is petitioning God for help. Often, we intercede on behalf of others; we want God to help them, so we ask. The thread I am watching and listening for in the Sunday Scriptures this week is this: Life is just so very difficult, and we need God’s help desperately.

I will delve deeper into passages through the week, but I name some of the features, briefly, here. First, we will observe that David is grief-struck over his son, Absalom, and mourns grippingly in a lament. It nearly rends our own hears just to hear it…

“O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Samuel 18:33)

Second, we hear Paul coaching the Ephesians to choose to live in truth-telling, kindness, forgiveness, and tenderheartedness. The pain of the other mode is too destructive: wrath, bitterness, wrangling, and maliciousness. He is instructing his friends, but it implies a strong appeal to God to grant them the capacity to live in love, as Christ has loved them.

In between these passages are verses from Psalm 130, a gorgeous request to God. Look at verses one and four.

Out of the depths have I called to you, O Lord;
    Lord, hear my voice; *
    let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.

I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; *
    in his word is my hope.

These three examples of crying out God from our need lead us to the declaration of Christ that we see in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. Our passage starts with verse thirty-five and ends with fifty-one. See his promise to grant fulfillment:

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty…I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Just to be thorough, take note as well of the request that is our Collect of the Day:

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Looking over these pieces that hold up so poignantly our need and God’s promise, prompted me to scribble down the following lines of free verse, so I end with them:

Granted

What would it be
to be free?
I’d know if I weren’t so bound.
I am tied to view life through these eyes,
yes, the orbs in the sockets,
but also through these—
the eyes of my soul.
I have fetters and restraints of all kinds:
thoughts, attitudes, and dispositions.
I am tightly tethered;
I know my limits.
Granted, I select them for myself.
I convince myself
I am only this smart and no smarter
this strong but no stronger
only this patient, reliable, capable…
What infinite limitation!

So, what is this pass?
Who would grant such an invitation
to expand, go further?
Who put this key into my palm?
Release the locks,
the chains. the stocks!
Open the windows and door!
I, who am crawling
am granted to soar.
It is worth it to ask,
to hold out the hand.
To the floor drop limply
my imagined restraints
free of the bindings,
I’m bound to be more.

DWP+  August 2021