Come on! You can be honest with God!

      Several years ago—when people did this more often—a mother was hanging the family laundry out to dry on a clothes line hung between two trees in her backyard.  This mother’s family had suffered the loss of a family member in a tragic accident.  She was particularly mournful that day and stopped in her task, looked heavenward, and prayed: “Lord, why did you take my son?”  As soon as the words slipped from her lips she recanted, “Sorry Lord.”  Her theology did not allow that kind of dialogue. It sounded wrong in her theological mind.  She wanted to make sure things didn’t get out of kilter—so she immediately apologized to God.
What her theology did not allow is relationship.  Her theology was a set of beliefs and proper actions—but seemingly a little light on relationship.  You see relationship is best defined as a journey of divulging.  Take dating as a simple illustration.  When you begin to date, you start to slowly give out information.  You talk about the weather, jobs, likes, dislikes, sports, colours, cars, clothes, vacations etc. If however, you want to advance that relationship and even think about marriage, you need to start divulging some deeper things.  “I don’t like it when this happens…..”  Or “I’m really sad when this happens….”  And sooner or later you need to deepen that to “I’m really sad when you do this…..”  It is all about increasingly letting another person into the real you.
What the mother hanging out the laundry did not know is this:  God was probably ‘ok’ with her first prayer because it was based on what she felt. (Oh BTW—in passing—probably a bad theological question as well.  I’m not reading the gospel story of a tyrant God who ‘takes’ people through tragedy!)  But—back to the point.  God likes the question from the mother because it allows the mother to express who she is and how she feels.  Why does God like that? Allow me to quote  Margaret Silf  Inner Compass: 
     “Just as you bring all your everyday concerns to God in prayer, and talk to Him about how your really feel (which may well include expressing your anger and frustration with Him from time to time), so steadily, He will open up more and more of Himself to you—or rather, He will increasingly open your own inner vision, to notice Him in everything around you and to recognize His presence in every moment.”
God can take it!  Open up your entire life to Him—He will do the same to you!

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