Unanswered Prayers
Zechariah, Companionship, and Unanswered Prayer
Sometimes you want a trusted companion who meets you where you are and helps you find your way; a spiritual guide who listens deeply to your life, empowers you to explore a deeper relationship with the Holy, and helps you to be human. During the Advent Season, Zechariah became my companion.
In the Gospel of Luke, the archangel Gabriel delivered a stunning message to Zechariah: “For I have come to tell you that your prayer for a child has been answered. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son and you are to name him John.” Zechariah responded, “How can you expect me to believe this?” A legitimate question—Elizabeth’s barrenness had followed her all of her life and she was now too old to have children, and Zechariah was an old man.
As I read, I noticed a footnote in the Passion Translation I had previously overlooked: “I have come to tell you your prayer (the prayer you no longer pray anymore) has been answered.” I gasped.
What prayers have I given up on?
Zechariah went mute for at least nine months because he failed to believe the angel. During that time, God re-shaped Zechariah’s mind and heart by unsettling, disturbing, challenging, and pushing Zechariah’s faith regarding who God was, God’s movement and activity in the world, and in Zechariah himself.
Unsettling, disturbing, challenging, pushing, re-tunneling, re-drawing… These are not easy words. There is no “comfortableness” in this process. Yet, this is how God re-shapes the vision of the Godself and who I am as a human. It is uncomfortable, and it is hard. Zechariah helps me be brave as I begin praying prayers I abandoned long ago.
I asked myself why I abandoned praying “those” prayers? Did I doubt God’s intervention in my life and in the lives of those I love? Did I get lazy? What will it cost me to begin praying those prayers again? The present reality of the Incarnation calls for concrete involvement in real life, here and now.
In his book The Holy Longing, Ronald Rolheiser states that I now bear some responsibility for being the answer to prayers prayed. Because of the reality of the Incarnation, God’s power is now partially dependent upon my actions. I am not sure if I completely believe this but there is something there that rings true. What comfort will need to be set down to fully embrace praying the prayers I no longer pray? Do I need a value shift or a different perspective?
Zechariah has helped me notice the invitation to begin praying prayers long abandoned and to acknowledge those abandoned prayers God has answered. He has helped me be brave as God re-tunnels and disrupts my faith. Zechariah is a good companion on my journey of being human.
What prayers are you no longer praying?
What might it cost you to begin praying those prayers again?
Where do you doubt God’s intervention in your life?
What prayers has God answered in your life even after you abandoned those prayers?
Who might be a good companion for you as you journey into all that will be in 2021?
