Justin Appel

‘I thank thee, Father, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes.’ Luke 10:17

Dear Friends in Christ,

In his prayer of thanksgiving upon the return of the Seventy from their missionary activity, Jesus singles out children (and the spiritually 'childlike') as the recipient of salvation. This idea reappears in Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus says that the Kingdom of God can only be received ‘as a little child’ (Lue 18:17).

How do we become like little children with regard to our faith?

One of the thoughts that resonates with me as a father, is that children don’t try to hide their true nature. As a case in point, my five-year-old son routinely pops off with absurdly honest commentary, prompting equal measures of laughter and embarrassment from his mother and I.

Kids simply don’t go through the bother to modify their ‘true selves’ as they interact with the world. They often say things ‘like they are’, without shame.

A good point of critique for us is at the point of prayer. Most of us probably feel pressure to modify ourselves, to improve our attitudes, to take on a pious mindset when we pray. This impulse to ‘clean up our act’ in God’s presence can become a ruse.

One of the challenges for us all is to approach God, exactly as we are: with our indifference, our sloth, our disintegration, even our lack of interest in God or the spiritual dimension of our lives, and of course, with our sinful energies.

This is exactly what God wants from us: the honest presence of our real, sinful, problematic, conflicted selves. If we stand before God honestly, then our prayers won’t just be words on a page, but something that emerges from our experience. If we stand before God ‘as we are’, then God will help us to know ourselves truly and to pray ‘aright’:

‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

Yours in Christ,
Justin