Bye-bye, honeymoon

I'm going to be a bit harsh in this post. I'll explain why later, but I thought I'd warn you now. Thanks in advance for reading and understanding.

This is a picture of my copy of The Living Bible, which was given to me back in the 80s when I was a little girl. As you can see, it's a black softcover book with a homemade leather Bible cover. My grandfather sewed the Bible cover himself and fitted my copy of The Living Bible into it. Recently, when I couldn't find The Living Bible online, I decided to read from my hardcopy, and I thought it would be nice to read it without the homemade Bible cover. But the cover wouldn't come off. It's stuck. I think the beautiful black softcover fused with the cheap leather. Upon further investigation, I noticed that this homemade leather Bible cover was made rather crappily.

I don't want to disrespect any of my elders, especially deceased ones. But I'm just trying to be honest. If you follow my blog, you know that I didn't like my grandfather, which is a major reason why I didn't attend his funeral. (Sorry, but I don't like it when people perpetually misspell my name, make fun of me, and heavily favor other siblings/cousins instead of me. I think all those actions are a huge, flashing neon sign that says, "I don't love you.")

Fortunately, I just now discovered that The Living Bible is accessible online, so I don't have to deal with my forever-covered-with-crappy-leather copy if I don't want to. But discovering the crappy craftsmanship of its cover helped me realize yet again how little my grandfather cared about me... and how much Christians can get taken advantage of sometimes.

Of course, that last part is just an educated guess, but as a Christian, I can understand how easily people can take advantage of us, even other Christians.

In my grandfather's case, he lived with us for free while he was retired. He had a room all to himself, but for weeks at a time, he would be away traveling throughout the state. He would sometimes preach at little churches, and he would sell Bibles and Bible products. His homemade leather Bible covers were one of his products. I honestly hope that he did a much better job making his customers' Bible covers than he did mine.

Hopefully, he was simply being resourceful, and I think perhaps I inherited his resourcefulness. I can be proud of that, in a good way. But I can't be proud of the crappy job he did with my Bible cover.

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." (Exodus 20:17)

About 6 months ago, I blogged about the terrible time I was having mentally/emotionally. I think what I was basically trying to say was that when a Christian reaches out for help in the body of Christ, all the Christians involved sort of go through this warm-fuzzy, ooey-gooey community honeymoon. Just add a few prayers to the Christian-in-crisis' problem, and the problem will magically disappear.

So, I got the help I needed. I am no longer in psychotherapy. But I think it's safe to say that the honeymoon is over. Yeah, that's right. This Christian psychoblogger has her head on straight, and now she'd like to kill some sacred cows. (I know. What else is new, right? Moo.)

I've noticed that the quickest way to get the attention of anybody in the body of Christ is to utter two magic words: "Please pray." Yes, that will get a Christian's attention in no-time flat. Unfortunately, I've noticed that other terribly important phrases such as "I want to kill myself" or "I'm lonely and depressed" or "Somebody has cancer" or "Mommy, a man is violating me" or "I was tempted to go to a topless bar today" barely get people's attention at all. But "please pray" will make my phone flash with so many texts, it'll be like Christmas in July. "Please hang out with me" might get ignored. "Please pray for me" will get an immediate reply.

Prayer is essential. Prayer is something that I need, something that everybody needs, something that God wants to listen to and respond to. Prayer is a way to unlock God's power in a person's life, in any situation. Prayer is something that paves a way for God to rend the heavens, come down, and unleash powerful parts of Himself that we may have only dreamed of. The Bible says to pray without ceasing. I've heard it said that this means that a Christian should breathe prayer. However, I don't think this necessarily means that a Christian should breathe prayer requests.

Perhaps you've heard the phrase "We covet your prayers." I used to think that the word "covet" was being misused in this phrase. From what I understand, the word "covet" is basically a fancy word that means "to want." Why not just say, "We want your prayers" or "Please pray for us"? The word "covet" is used in an awfully terrible context in Exodus 20:17.

But the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized that perhaps the word "covet" IS rightfully used in the phrase "We covet your prayers." Perhaps in the same way that you'd say, "Hey, man, I don't think you should be married to your hot wife; I think she should be mine; I want her for myself; I covet her" is the same way that the phrase "We covet your prayers" is used sometimes.

Prayer can definitely be used for manipulation. You can turn just about anything into a prayer request, and it will get a Christian's immediate attention. Perhaps the phrase "We covet your prayers" sometimes means, "Hey, man, I don't think you should be able to pick and choose what you pray for; I want you to drop what you're doing, drop to your knees, and pray for me right now; I want to hog your prayer time; I want it all to myself; I covet it."

I think this is one way that Christians can be taken advantage of. I think maybe in the same way that my traveling-salesman grandfather took advantage of the Bible-product market at the churches he visited, some people can take advantage of Christians' hair-trigger tendency to pray immediately when asked.

And it's a tendency that all of us Christians should definitely have. But I'm just offering a word of warning that it's a tendency that can be exploited.

Of course, I'm not an ordained minister, so I don't have any credentials that should require you to listen to me. But I know what it's like to be exploited, I know what it's like to be taken advantage of, I know what it's like to be manipulated, and I know what it's like to get hurt. I know what it's like to feel used for my prayers.

And I know what it's like to have very little to show for my pain other than a forever-covered-with-crappy-leather book. Why was I trying to cover up my Bible, anyway?

Not everyone who looks like a sheep, sounds like a sheep, or smells like a sheep is really a sheep. Sometimes wolves like to dress up as sheep. I think maybe the key is following the Shepherd around, listening to Him, and asking Him which sheep are real. Sure, He wants us to love sheep, wolves, and cows alike. But sometimes it's important to just know who's who and what's what.

(Moo?)