A Simple Request

J

im worked in the customer service department of a popular national retailer.  His job was simple:  listen to the customer, assess the problem, and make the customer happy.  Those three steps seemed so easy in theory. However, in practice, they were quite difficult to perform.  The entire process hinged on the first step, listen to the customer.  Fortunately, this was not a problem for Jim.  He had the reputation for being one of the most patient managers in the store’s cadre of employees and his fellow workers also knew him to be one of the best listeners around.  In fact, on more than one occasion, they had called Jim aside and asked his advice about some difficulties of their own and they had found him to be just as patient and understanding with them as he was with the customers.

Unfortunately for Jim, customers rarely made it easy for him to listen to their concerns.  They were either angry because something hadn’t gone right, or they felt they had been treated unfairly and singled out by the store, and sometimes they just wanted to complain.  When they tried to state their problems or concerns, they used vague terms and they never came out and directly stated the nature of their difficulty. 

Jim’s personal favorite was a man who wanted to return a rechargeable screwdriver he had received as a birthday present.  The screwdriver wouldn’t turn and the man was irate.  He told Jim the screwdriver wouldn’t do its thing.   He continued by saying that the little things wouldn’t fit anything and that the big thing wouldn’t turn around.  Moreover, the whatchamacallit wouldn’t close right and he thought the whole thing was just one gigantic rip-off.

After ten minutes of this conversation, Jim finally asked the man what he wanted him to do.  The man told Jim he didn’t care what he did as long as the man got satisfaction.  This left Jim in somewhat of a quandary.  He had listened to the man, he had assessed the problem, and he was attempting to make the man happy.  However, he was being unsuccessful on all three fronts.  Finally he was able to learn that the man had failed to initially charge the screwdriver (it wouldn’t turn), he was using the wrong bits on the wrong screws (the little things would fit anything), and the main shaft wouldn’t turn because he had failed to unlock the safety catch (the big thing wouldn’t turn around)!  Once he was able to decipher the problem, he told the man how to operate the screwdriver and showed him that it would work.  The man left feeling much better.  Jim, however, was exhausted.

There were only five minutes left in his shift and Jim couldn’t wait to get home.  That’s when he heard a soft, gentle voice behind him.   Turning around, he saw an elderly lady leaning on a walker, holding a small cooking dish with a broken lid.  She was looking at the clock and realized it was only five minutes before closing.  She had been in line throughout the whole ordeal with the previous customer and wanted to know if Jim would help her.  She knew he could help her; but she wanted to know if he would. 

What a difference that request made.  The lady had waited patiently at the end of the line.  She knew what her problem was and she knew that Jim could help her.  However, after working with the man with the screwdriver, she wanted to know if he would help her.  Jim’s heart melted.  He looked at the lady, gave her a seat, took her cooking dish, and he went and got her a new one.  She was very happy and grateful that Jim had listened, that he had assessed the situation, and had met her need.  She went home very satisfied indeed.

So often, when it comes to our prayer life, we are like the man with the screwdriver.  We don’t get what we want, or what we get doesn’t work the way we want it to, and the first thing we do is to treat God like the manager of the complaint department in a retail store.  We show up to our place of prayer, we get on our knees, we collect our thoughts, and then we proceed to tell Him every negative thing we can think of in regards to our situation.  Seldom, if ever, do we thank Him for what He’s done for us in the past.  Seldom, if ever do we ask Him to help us.  Instead, we just want to know how He intends to fix our problem and how He can prevent this type of thing from happening again.  We want God to listen to us and to fix every problem we have.  What we want is satisfaction, to receive our due, and to make sure that we get everything we have coming to us.

Fortunately for us, God is a good and patient listener.  He has to be because we don’t know how to approach Him in prayer.  We bring a whole litany of requests and complaints with us to the place of prayer.  We spend all our time laying out our requests and demands before God and most of the time they aren’t worded in any coherent way.  We just expect that God will understand what we are saying and give us what we want!  How arrogant we are!  God is not in the business of filling out order forms! He is after a relationship.  In a relationship two people relate, they don’t berate.

The elderly woman with the broken cooking dish exemplifies the way we must come to God in prayer.  She had a problem she couldn’t fix and she wanted to know if Jim would help her.  She never questioned that he could help her, but she wanted to know if he was willing to do so.  Jesus had a similar experience with a man afflicted with leprosy.  Mark 1:40-41 records the following story: “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”  Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, “I am willing,” he said, “Be clean!”

So simple, yet so profound.  This man, afflicted with a horrible disease, cut off from society and from the love of other people, knew how to pray.  He got on his knees, and he pleaded with Jesus to heal him.  He knew Jesus could, but asked him if he would.  How much different would our prayer lives be if we adopted this attitude?  How much more willing would God be to hear us if we approached Him in our weakness rather than in our arrogance?  How much more sensitive do you think God is to those who are humble and meek than to those who are proud and demanding?  We are able to approach God like this; but are we willing?