Prayer is not mostly about asking for stuff.  It is about seeking God for Himself.  It’s about hearing and knowing what God thinks.  It’s about experiencing who God is.

It’s like having an old friend (an older friend) and saying, “I’m having this issue, this problem, and I want to know what you think about it.  I want to know how you’ve dealt with this problem in the past.  I don’t exactly want you to fix it.  I just want a little wisdom about how to look at it in a new way: to see it from a new perspective.

God can be that person.  He can, and will, and does, share what He knows, Who He is, in that exact situation.  Often, it’s when we didn’t even know we were asking; and we come to a new realization of who we are in that situation and in our relationship with God.

Now, go read Romans 12:1-2 in light of this idea: that God really wants to be, really is: your wise old friend.

Awhile back I saw an 18 minute TedTalk ‘Youtube’ video by this New Yorker named Simon Sinek, talking about his concept “Start with Why”.  In a way it changed my whole perspective on life.  I was just starting marketing my book, and the guy said, “If you want people to support you and follow you in whatever you do, tell ’em why, and if your why matches their why, then they’ll help you.  They just can’t resist.

And if you tell them why, and your why is central to your life, and your passion, and your cause for action and being, you will just naturally flow into success in your venture, because that’s the way peoples’ hearts work.  All these are my words; his are much better stated; but it works anyway.  It’s because there’s just something going on in your heart that draws people to your idea, your cause, your passion, because you’re connecting with their cause and their passion.

He also talks about how this concept reorganizes your life so that what you DO begins to support your WHY, and it all becomes a unified force for good for you and for your followers.  Read the book and see if it doesn’t have a profound effect on your life too.

“If something’s got to be done, but you don’t know what to do, wait, it’ll come to you.” (From a letter to my kids.)

Used to be, one of my favorite sayings, one of the principles I lived by was, “Do something, even if it’s wrong.”  My rationale was that God could direct you easier if you were moving rather than sitting still.  (And if you do something, at least things will change, and maybe you’ll know what to do about the new situation, even if you didn’t know what to do about the previous situation.) Well, maybe.

But now, I think it would be easier for God to send you in the right direction if you weren’t already going in the wrong direction.  My more recent experience indicates that in a crisis, if you don’t already know what to do from experience, you should wait until you understand the situation better.  I know, it takes a lot of guts to just stand there, when it is clear that something MUST be done, like RIGHT NOW.  Don’t do it.  Just stay alert, and something will turn up, sooner than you think.  Sometimes it’s exhilarating when a great idea just comes on you like a flash of light.  Sometimes you’ll hear the answer from your opponent or a bystander, and sometimes the whole thing will work out without you doing anything.  And usually, if you wait, they’ll give you two or three chances to do something before you lose control.

It’s pretty easy to go into lockdown.  But don’t do it.  Use the time to observe the other person.  Think of it as a game.  You may lose the score, but you can still win the game.  You may lose the battle, but you can still win the war.  Keep your balance.  If you don’t know what to do, just wait, it’ll come to you!

“Yeah, I thought I had trouble ’cause I had a hole in my shoe, till I saw a boy that didn’t have any feet.” Unknown  “Don’t worry about tomorrow, there’s plenty of stuff to worry about today . . ” Matt 6:33 (paraphrase)  “Don’t worry about anything, thank God for what you have, ask Him for what you need, and He’ll give you peace that’ll keep your heart and you mind thru Jesus our Lord.” Phil 4:6-7 (paraphrase)  (From a letter to my kids)

This was supposed to be about staying relaxed and letting the little stuff slide, because most things will work out by themselves.  Then I figured out it’s about not worrying.  It turns out that most big problems are made up of a bunch of small ones.

I still think you don’t need to worry about everything.  When you can do something about a problem, do it.  When you can’t, just put it out of your mind.  But sometimes that’s real hard to do; like when you don’t have enough money.  Everything that’s wrong seems to come back to money, and you sorta dwell on it.  When that happens, I try to follow that verse about turning it over to God.

‘Course I go through a ‘mental process’ to ‘talk myself out of’ worrying.  First thing is I say to myself, “I’m not going to think about that today.”  I’m not going to worry about what happens later.  After that I decide I’m gonna see how I’m doing right this minute.  What do I have to be thankful for right now?  I can usually think up a few things like, 1] I was able to get up this morning; 2] I got to sleep last night and eat this morning; 3] I may owe a lot of money right now, b ut they don’t throw people in jail for debt; at least not in the good ole U.S. of A.; and best of all 4] God has brought me through worse stuff than this, and I figure He will bring me through this crisis too.  By the time I get through with all that I’m usually feeling quite a bit better.  (And I don’t know why, but it makes me feel better that there are probably other people out there that are worse off than me.)

It’s kinda like Bob Gold says, “You just can’t worry about everything.” What that always meant to me was that “I may have to worry about that sometime, but not right now.  Maybe later.  Maybe I’m going to worry about something, but not that, not now.  In fact, maybe what I need is to go sit on the porch and have a cool beverage and solve the problems of the world with my friends.  Betterin’ worryin’.

‘Course there are a lot worse things than lack of money.  Like terminal illness; or divorce; or trouble with the law; when you get to things like that, you just have to turn it over to the Lord.  He will definitely take care of you, if you’ll just trust Him.