What if I can’t get it going?
All respect to Nate Bargatze
What if I can’t get it going?
The other day I was watching Nate Bargatze’s stand up special on Amazon Prime. (No, I wasn’t paid to plug the show to the 100 of you reading this ha-ha.)
Bargatze had me cackling when he talked about eating pancakes for breakfast. No matter how many times he eats those fluffy treats he is still surprised to feel sluggish and tired.
“I just can’t seem to get it going.” He tells his wife. He doesn’t understand why.
His wife smartly retorts, “You don’t think it was that loaf of bread covered in sugar you had for breakfast?” (You really should watch the special because I can’t do it justice.)
Sometimes we can’t get it going. We aren’t always sure why.
Whether it was pancakes or sleeping on the wrong side of the bed– We don’t have the energy we used to or want to. We struggle but don’t make much ground.
When prayer is only a spiritual discipline it is the last place, you want to go on the day you feel off. Prayer sounds like adding another weight to a tired soul.
But this is such a tragic misunderstanding of prayer.
Prayer is an opportunity for fellowship with God. You can depend on the God who has never needed you and isn’t frustrated that you are finite. In fact, He made you that way!
It can be easy for us to think we are letting God down or falling out of His graces when we struggle with weakness, sickness, and fatigue. We drift from fellowship out of fear.
The Lord is not frustrated when we are limited. God was never depending on us. He has never needed anything from us.
God reminds us how the world really works in Psalm 50,
12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
Can you really pray, “God, I just can’t get it going today. I’m not sure what’s up but I’m tired and discouraged and there’s lots I want to do…even need to do… that I’m struggling to do. What do I do?”
Yes, you can.
God is not going to roll His eyes and grumble as He steps in to help you again. He’s been sustaining you on days of strength and on days of weakness. He was never hoping to receive anything from you. All that you have has been a gift from Him!
On the days the gift of mojo isn’t there, the gift of prayer still is.