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| (Author: Bastique) |
praying until I read these words from Anne Lamott's latest book:
It is all hopeless. Even for a crabby optimist
like me, things couldn't be worse. Everywhere you turn, our lives and marriages and morale
and government are falling to pieces… Help. Help us walk through this. Help us come through. It is the first great prayer.
Yet is it not selfish to "bother" God about our personal needs?
Lamott does not think so. In a November 2012 interview with NPR, she states that it's "God's job" to offer help – especially to those
who lean upon "a power great than themselves" or upon "something in the next concentric circle out whose name is not me."
In Lamott's estimation, the prayerful connection does not end there. Just
as we often forget to thank people for all that they do and are, we forget to thank God for the same. Lamott's
second great prayer therefore goes like this: Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. (And
if this mantra seems difficult to remember, a simple heartfelt
"Thanks!" will suffice...)
Last (and perhaps most) comes "Wow!" Lamott's version of this exclamation comes in response to the
"sheer beauty of creation." It is the "prayer of wonder" – wonder at such things as sky, trees, birds, babies, and
fjords.
So there you have it: Help - Thanks - Wow! Life's
holy chant distilled into three profound syllables…
Resources
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/13/anne_lamott_my_secret_little_prayer/
http://www.npr.org/2012/11/19/164814269/anne-lamott-distills-prayer-into-help-thanks-wow
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