the susie solution

My husband’s name is Robert. During the seven or eight years in which he was Executive Director of one congregation, he had fun with the fact that meetings were run by Robert’s Rules of Order – especially when it turned out that there were a few in the Voters’ Assembly who didn’t realize that that is the name of a codified body of rules for conducting formal meetings, named after a man whose LAST name was Robert, not just something my hubbie made up as he went along so he could control the group. While many of us may not be familiar with much of the bulk of Robert’s Rules, there is one aspect that virtually every American knows: the vote. “All in favor, say ‘aye’. All opposed, say ‘no’.” Majority rules. It’s a cherished American tradition, applied to a vast spectrum of life, and, for the most part, it works well.

It doesn’t, of course, apply to parenting. “I don’t care if all five of you vote for sundaes for dinner, you’re still having tuna casserole.” It doesn’t fly in the military, either. “Sorry, Sarg, but we voted to cut the hike to 5 miles, and we don’t want to carry packs today, either.” And although it is common to speak of America as being a democracy, it isn’t; it’s a republic. There’s a big difference! One is rule by simple, direct majority – mob rule. The other is rule by elected representatives… of the mob.

There’s one place that thinking in terms of sheer numbers as carrying the day is troubling to me: the church – specifically, in prayer. This is typified in comments such as “Yes, my doctor was amazed at how fast I recovered from surgery. But, you know, I had a LOT of people praying for me.” “We’re just praising God for this new job, but you know, we just had SO many people praying for us.” “There were so many people praying for this baby, I just KNEW I’d get pregnant!”

Many of us are part of telephone, or its modern incarnation, email, prayer chains. With the advent of the internet, a prayer request can now garner literally thousands of prayers in a matter of hours. Don’t get me wrong here: I firmly believe in this kind of prayer. When I have a great need, I don’t hesitate to reach out to friends and family to request prayer on my behalf. I consider it a privilege to pray for others. In fact, I confess I get, well, miffed, if I find out a close friend had some kind of big crisis and didn’t let anyone else know so they could be lifting the one in need up in prayer. We are commanded to pray for one another and carry each other’s burdens.

I see a problem, though, when we act as if the more people there are praying, the more likely it is that God grant the desired outcome. When we credit a recovery, a healing, a new job, a pregnancy to the quantity of voices raised on our behalf, we are, in fact, implying that someone who DIDN’T get those results just didn’t have enough people on their side. It’s as if we think God is tallying votes! “Let’s see…. 997…998…999…1000! Bingo! OK, I’ll heal this child. Now, next one…. 995… 996… …. …. Nope, sorry, didn’t make the quota. You lose.”

It’s as if we believe the point of prayer is to convince God to do what He otherwise would not – to convince Him to be merciful as if He otherwise would be cruel, to convince Him to be generous as if He otherwise would be stingy, to convince Him to be kind as if He would otherwise be harsh. To think this way is to misjudge His character, and, indeed, slander it. No matter what the answer to our prayers, God is ALWAYS merciful. He is ALWAYS kind. He is ALWAYS generous. He is ALWAYS good. Whether He grants life or allows death, brings healing or allows sickness, saves our house or allows us to lose it, keeps us in our job or allows us to be let go, gives us that child or leaves our womb empty. His character and qualities never change.

We are free to pray for healing. We are free to pray for provision. We are free to pray for restoration. We pray for life rather than death, for a child rather than barrenness, for a job rather than unemployment. We are told to present ALL our requests to God, but all of our requests are ultimately supposed to be Jesus’ prayer, “Not my will but THINE be done.” If we think we can sway God by by th mere count of votes in favor of the proposal, we are, in fact, treating Him as the Great Gumball Machine for which we need only enough coins to turn His will to OURS.

Whether it is one righteous man or ten thousand, God is not a God of majority rule. Or, well, maybe He is. HE is The Majority. Rather than praying to get Him on OUR side, we should be praying that we would be on HIS.