Child-like Chances

Praying for a choir member with a special need.

My throat felt like it was slowly constricting and I could hear my voice change to an unfamiliar pitch as my pulse pounded and the air didn’t seem like it was getting to my lungs. I felt practically incompetent in that state like a little child stumbling through a live narration of neurosurgery. That was my experience of running out of words while leading corporate prayer at our local congregation recently.

Being active in ministry across cultures is a great blessing and a big challenge. I’ve been reflecting on how a big part of that blessing and challenge is the way that it presses you into a more child-like posture. I take that as a helpful growth direction seeing as Jesus has some pretty heavy words about needing to become like children in order to grasp the kingdom of God.

But that prayer situation really got me. I feel like my training and experience set me up well for leading prayer in just about any time or place. Prayer is a pretty deep heart-language activity as well though. So if I’m asked to pray in church here on the spur of the moment without time to prepare, then I just pray in English because I know the one to whom the prayer is directed is pretty fluent. But La Maestra has been challenging me to honor our partners better by always striving to pray in a way that they can understand too.

So recently, I was asked to pray for the nominees at the end of a congregational meeting for electing representatives to the National Church Board. It was natural enough to start off in the local language, but then I got to the specifics of asking God for gifts and wisdom for the nominees and guidance for the further elections, wow… The flow of words started drying up and my brain was in over-drive trying to think appropriate thoughts in English and then come up with suitable phrases to translate them into on the run.

When I was finished, I was thoroughly embarrassed. In my trauma-fied state I didn’t fully register, but I believe a few people let out small whoops or halleluiahs, which I think was meant to encourage me after what was obviously a bit of a struggle. With more time to reflect on it, I’m trying to let go of that embarrassment and instead embrace the encouragement that all kids need to have as they grow. Importance doesn’t come from how pretty or experienced I sound as I try to communicate. But rather it’s showing an open attitude and letting communication flow out of rightly aimed love that makes a child’s communication so meaningful to a parent or a beloved community. Now I’m looking for all the other opportunities that I’m given amid my culture-crossing that invite me to come before God with a more child-like posture.

-- El Padre