Letters to My Congregation

Ignoring Social Cues

Each week (usually Wednesday afternoon), I send out a letter to the congregation at West Franklin. It’s a tiny way I hope to shepherd them during the week. Perhaps it might encourage, help, or challenge you as well.

Photo by Thomas Marquize on Unsplash

West Franklin Family,

I chuckled to myself recently while reading a familiar passage in Luke 11. I guess you could say I LOL’d. After Luke records his version of the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:2-4), he shares an illustration Jesus gave on how to pray (Luke 11:5-8). According to Jesus, our prayers should ignore all social cues. We should approach the Father in a way that - to well-behaved people – would appear improper.

I’m not sure if you have ever been around someone who is socially awkward, but Jesus’s illustration is about such a person. (Side note: I know for a fact you have been around socially awkward people because our church is full of ‘em.) According to Christ, our prayers should mirror someone who is a complete annoyance. Zero self-awareness. Incompetent to read a room. Our prayers are to be like a man who woke up his neighbor in the middle of the night . . . for some bread. Yeah. Like someone who has an unexpected visitor. And, because the visitor is unexpected, he doesn’t have food for his surprise guest. So instead of waiting until morning to get food for everyone (like any normal person would do), he decides to go next door, pound on it until someone answers, and ask his neighbor if he has any bread on hand. Can you fathom how annoyed you would be? What if someone knocked on your door at 2 am and asked you for a couple of eggs for a cake they were baking? Not cool.

Get this now. The man didn’t wake up his neighbor’s household because there was a life and death situation. He didn’t go pounding on the door because someone needed immediate medical attention. No. This person, because he wanted bread for he and his unexpected visitor, thought to himself, “I imagine my neighbor has bread. They’re probably asleep but let me see if he will let me have what he’s got on hand.” According to Jesus, the neighbor gave the man bread because he was so annoying! In other words, he handed over the bread while in his pajamas just to get the guy off his back!

Jesus’s point? Be like the annoying guy! Be shameless. Be audacious. Ignore all socially accepted cues. When it comes to prayer, we are not to concern ourselves with how we come off or how we present ourselves or how our words sound. We are to come oblivious to any form of proper etiquette. We are free to approach God, in other words, just as we are. Any words will do. Any request is heard. Any emotional state is welcome. The proper way to behave in our society does not apply in the kingdom of heaven.

So West Franklin – let it rip! Be annoying. Throw off any tendency to be polite with God. Just be you. Tell Him what you want to tell Him. Tell Him however you want to tell Him. You don’t have to carefully craft your words. You don’t even have to say please and thank you (though the thank you part is a pretty good idea). The Father is not worried about whether or not you have considered His emotions in the conversation. He has emotions. And He makes them known. But what He wants is YOU. The real you. The un-doctored you. The un-filtered you. So, what are you waiting for? Go and “annoy” Him with your requests. Anyone else might consider you a nuisance. Not God. He welcomes it. All of it.

Jesus - Teach us to Pray,

Pastor Matt