Well it's certainly not "please help me." Those are simple to say and even easier to mean, when you're in trouble. Drunk or sober, many's the time when my "please help me" was as heartfelt as humanly possible.
Nor is it "Thy will be done." Kids, in a smackdown between you and the Creator of All Time and Space, while I'm most definitely in your corner, rooting for your continued success in sobriety (Go, You!), I'm gonna put my money on the C.o.A.T.a.S. -- for a TKO. (No offense.) But seriously, I'm thinking that the "Thy" in "Thy will" is gonna have it Their way, with or without your permission -- big of you though it is to offer it.
No, when you're in trouble -- real trouble -- and you ask God, the Universe or The Great Whatever for help, the most dangerous words you can say are:
"I'll do anything."
Be careful -- because if you say it, things will start happening. The wheels of ... of the Something ... will start to turn. And then "anything" is going to be presented to you, and you must stare down the barrel of just how much you might have been enjoying being stuck and not actually having to do anything about it.
Sometimes we like stuck a lot more than we realize.
When the opportunity to actually do something about your problems, whatever they may be, is presented to you from a Higher Power (as you understand Them) it can be a very rude awakening to see just how conditional you suddenly become on accepting Divine Help.
This is a little bit like waiting for an organ transplant, and as your Vital Signs start to fail, and the guy with the cooler races in from the heliport carrying your new liver/kidney/eyeball/whatever, reaching out from the gurney and saying, "Wait! Wait ... the donor ... were they blond?"
"I'll do anything." I'm serious. This prayer business is not all warm fuzzies and quiet moments -- be careful. You just might tap into something that actually offers you the chance to step up and change.
Very scary.
arghhhhh
Posted by: Dave | June 26, 2009 at 03:08 AM
Change? What's that?
Posted by: Steve E | June 26, 2009 at 09:43 PM