Wanting and asking

Jan 2, 2014

On the second day of the year and my first day back at work, my thoughts turn to questions of what I want for 2014. And if we bring God into that equation, I’m sure, like me, you have sometimes asked yourself – why pray, when God knows what you want already? Why not just list some goals and priorities and let God sift them and filter them and do his stuff as he sees fit? This morning the thought hit me with rather more clarity than before that the difference between what I want and what I ask for is relationship. Not just with God, I mean, but with anybody. It’s nice when people think carefully about what you might need/want without actually asking, then set about acquiring it for you, gift wrapping it and presenting it. But there’s something quite bold and beautiful about asking. Asking starts to shift wishful thinking to positive hope, asking says “I trust that you care about me and will try to provide for me if you possibly can”, and asking says “I want to live my life to be somehow mixed up in yours so that my wellbeing is in part dependent on your choices”. Hope, trust and dependence: simply “wanting” neither requires nor communicates any of these three. “Wanting” is in itself quite passive, and even speaking it out loud helps us to be more real and more alive. But more than this, hope, trust and dependence are all active ingredients in building true intimacy. Wait a moment, I hear you thinking. Why do you say “in part”, Phil? Should we not be wholly and completely dependent on God? That’s a perceptive question, but a different subject. Maybe we should pick that up next time.