Eloquence
June 12, 2008
By Scott Harrup
I admire people who arrange complex ideas clearly and
communicate them eloquently. You probably remember a favorite teacher or
college professor with that gift. Maybe a minister or two.
The gift can also be misused. Most of us encounter
professional spin artists urging us to invest our money or vote or commit our
time in a manner we may realize too late is unwise.
Times of prayer would certainly be key moments to say
something to greatest effect. You’re talking to God, the Creator.
Some prayers, when we hear them, are self-evidently
powerful. Clearly, the person is in intimate conversation with heaven. There’s
no pretension, posturing or selfish wish list. Just unhindered give and take
with the Heavenly Father.
In my life, someone consistently comes to mind in that
department. He might surprise you.
Our son Connor is 11 and, outwardly, severely constrained by
cerebral palsy. But, wow, can he pray. It goes something like this …
Ohhhh …
It’s repeated a few times at varying lengths. Connor usually
kicks in when he hears someone in our family offering a prayer. Sometimes,
while we’re praying, we’ll hear him echoing with a gentle Yesss …
He’s got a two-word vocabulary in his prayer lexicon. I
suspect he gets a lot more across than I do with thousands of words to choose
from. When I listen to Connor pray, I’m reminded that the God who created every
nuance of language is able to see right to the heart of what I need even when I
don’t quite know how to express that myself.
For me, Connor is a living reminder of Jesus’ promise: “Your
Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8, NIV).
Jesus wasn’t discouraging prayer. He followed that
instruction with the simple yet profound lines of the Lord’s Prayer. But He
invited us to remember that in the family of God, our Heavenly Father’s heart
is intimately grafted with ours.
Sometimes, when everything seems to be piling up to bury us,
we can move mountains with a simple Ohhhh, Yesss! uttered in faith.
— Scott Harrup is senior associate editor of Today’s
Pentecostal Evangel and blogs at Out There (sharrup.agblogger.org).
