Samuel Beckett wrote a play entitled Waiting for Godot. This is an interesting play in which two men (Lucky and Estragon) spend a great deal of time waiting along the side of the rode for a character called Godot…Godot never arrives. Many have interpreted this play to be atheistic and an attempt by Beckett to ridicule religion and theism. Beckett himself however never liked such an interpretation and actively spoke against it. Be that as it may, Godot is an interesting study in character and in many ways reflects a human tendancy to allow ourselves to become immobilized with expectation.
Take prayer for example. I often wonder how my prayers may in fact be exercises in immobilization. How often do I pray to God for the very thing which He Himself has already asked of me (part of His church, the Body of Christ) to accomplish by His strength and on His behalf through the Spirit He has given to me? When I do this do I then become like Lucky and Estragon waiting on God and in the mean time keeping myself busy in ridiculous ways?
What do I mean by all of this? Well –
– How often do I find myself praying for the sick and asking God to bring healing and strength (which surely I must) and then forget that my own ministering presence has already been asked for by God?
– How often do I pray that God would comfort the shut-in or prisoner and fail to recognize that He has already asked me to do this?
– How often do I find myself praying that God would provide for the poor when He has already asked me to do this?
– How often have I asked God to go into the world and work in the lives of the nonbeliever when He has already asked me to do this?
– How often have I asked God to draw near to me when He has already asked me to draw near to Him?
Then, after prayer, I will sit and wait and wait and wait wondering at times if God will ever come…immobilized with expectation.
A verse seems appropriate to all of this –
‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ "Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ "The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
– Matthew 25:34-40
Postscript: Later in the day I was finishing up Jr. Youth night planning when I came across the following prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. In light of the above thoughts I think it is an appropriate addition.
- Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
- where there is hatred, let me sow love;
- where there is injury, pardon;
- where there is doubt, faith;
- where there is despair, hope;
- where there is darkness, light;
- and where there is sadness, joy.
- O Divine Master,
- grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
- to be understood, as to understand;
- to be loved, as to love;
- for it is in giving that we receive,
- it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
- and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
- Amen.
Harnessing Chaos 