The Audacity to Pray
Is it possible for the human spirit to calm the winds?
The sound of rocks scraping the inside of vases brought chills down my spine as Marty dropped rocks into small flower arrangements to prevent them from knocking over by the strong wind. It was about four-thirty in the afternoon, and guests for this corporate event my friend hosted were about to arrive in two hours. Unfortunately, she was expecting three hundred people, and the Santa Ana wind's wrath could dampen everyone’s time.
I stood in the garden's center between a large rock and a naked cocktail table stripped of its tablecloth with my flower centerpiece entangled amongst its folds. I bent over to search for a small gold vase and two pink tea roses hoping were not broken at the neck. I draped the black linen over the table and placed the vase and roses, still intact, at the center. I dropped two rocks inside to give it weight with little hope for survival in this wind.
Looking towards the direction where the wind was coming from, a little irritated at it, and something inside me said, “Make it go away..” I laughed at myself and said, who do you think you are, Jesus? My spirit responded, “God can make it go away.”
Do I have the audacity to pray for the wind to cease?
No one here would know if I succeeded, but they would experience this wind if I failed. Looking eastward towards the opening between the pines. I worked up the courage to say, “I know You created all things and can do all things. I know You. I’m asking You to calm this wind: Not because I’m asking, not because You can, but because You want to.”
Late in the evening, Marty and I walked amongst the guests who enjoyed endless food with bellies full of sweets. They were playing games, chatting, and laughing. We walked around the different food stations and enjoyed our dinner. I breathed in the cold night air and felt it fill my lungs. I suddenly noticed, for the first time all evening, that the air was crisp and still. No centerpieces were knocked over, and no tables and clothes were undressed of their linens.
It worked! I prayed for the wind to stop, and it did.
Image: Turner, J.M.W. 1842. “Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth” oil on canvas, Tate Britain.