Listen to this sermon by Pastor Brooks in which he takes on the persona of a macho guy praying to God.
Scripture Reading–2 Corinthians 1: 3-5
Dear God,
My girlfriend recently told me that I should either see a therapist or pray. This was her way of saying that I needed help. I was more than a little offended. I certainly do not think of myself as someone who needs help. I once took a Facebook quiz called “How Macho Are You?” and my score was off the charts macho. A number of the questions had to do with what you might call my “faith.” If I had a religion, it would be called the religion of self-reliance. If my car breaks down, I repair it myself. If there is a leaky faucet, I fix it. If I eat a steak, I not only grill it. I butcher the cow myself. Much to the agony of my ultra-liberal girlfriend: my religion applies to my political views as well. I expect the same of others that I expect of myself. If I am self-reliant, others should be too. Needless to say, I hate big government. “Do it yourself” is what I say. Stop acting like a little child.
I am very happy with this religion of mine, and I have no desire to convert to a different faith. To be honest, I am writing this letter as a favor to my girlfriend. The idea of going to a therapist almost made me throw up. I just can’t handle the idea of telling all my problems to someone else as if I am incapable of handling them myself. I hope you don’t mind, but for my girlfriend and I, you were our compromise. Please don’t be offended that I am writing this letter because I refuse to see a therapist. It also helps that you are a lot cheaper.
So here I am. My girlfriend thought it would be good if I wrote my prayer down on paper. While secretly she might have hoped that this would be proof that I actually did something, she says that writing my prayer down will help me “process my emotions better.” I am not a guy with a lot of emotions, so there isn’t much to process, but in the spirit of compromise I am doing my best to come up with something.
Well, what can I say to someone who already knows it all? You probably know this past year has been a rough one. First, my mother died, and then a month later I lost my job. You can imagine how hard it is for someone who believes in self-reliance to suddenly have trouble paying rent. Do I have any feelings about this? Sure, I get angry sometimes. At first, I was angry at the boss who laid me off, but lately I have been feeling angry at a lot of other people. I feel like I wouldn’t be in this position if other people weren’t messing up our society so much. It kills me to want to be self-reliant and yet feel like I am at the mercy of others. I was trying to explain this to my father last night, and all he could say was, “Welcome to what old age feels like.”
I don’t want to keep carrying all this anger around, but if I don’t feel angry, then I find myself feeling ashamed. It is like, “What’s wrong with me that I can’t even pay my own bills?” I feel like I either got to blame others or I got to blame myself. I am tired of both these feelings. I want it to stop, and I guess this is where I get stuck. My girlfriend can see that I am at a loss for how to handle this, and I will be honest: I am not always pleasant to be around because of how I feel.
Now, you can see why I am writing this letter—in case you didn’t already know. I am not really sure what you can do about it. I suppose some say you are an energy or presence that they feel, but I can’t say I have been feeling anything special lately. The closest I come to feeling better is when I am around friends who are going through the same thing I am going through. They understand it. They don’t turn it into a pity party, but at some level it is like we feel each other’s pain. My girlfriend says that this is what people call compassion. She says she read somewhere that compassion means to suffer with someone else. While the word “compassion” sounds a little touchy-feely for a bunch of guys shooting the bull, maybe there is something to what she is saying. I mean Jesus was a compassionate guy, right? You must be compassionate if you listen to a bunch of prayers like this.
I have to admit compassion feels a lot better than blame. This past year has been hard, and I feel like I deserve some compassion for that. It is not easy taking as many punches as I have taken over the year and still find the strength to get back up. At times, all of us need to head to the corner of the ring so that someone can care for our wounds and fix us back up. Each of us needs someone in our corner, and maybe you’re in my corner. Maybe a boxing ring isn’t the best image for talking about compassion. I suppose you are sort of the nonviolent type, but the image works for me. Sometimes life makes me feel like I am in a fight. In the morning, I will feel like I am trying to get up off the mat. Part of me doesn’t want to get up, but I know I have to keep at it. I can’t stay knocked down, and I need people to cheer me on.
I guess we all need someone. Just like the boxer needs people to train him, cheer for him, and patch him up round after round, we all need people who will help us stay in the ring of life. I’ve heard the story about the guy stranded on his rooftop in the middle of a flood and how he was angry with you for never saving him, even though you sent one person after another to rescue him. Each time the guy turned down the rescuer because he was waiting for you. Maybe that’s how you are present in my life. You work through the people who help me stay in the ring. I doubt my girlfriend thought my prayer to you would turn into a conversation about boxing. That probably isn’t what she was hoping for, but I am actually finding this helpful.
I will tell her that we talked about compassion and how the truth is that we all need the support of others to make it through life. Hopefully, she won’t think this has changed my political views. Still. this conversation has made me feel like I want to do my part for others. If you have been in my corner, and if others have been in my corner, then maybe I need to occasionally be in someone else’s corner. I know when my mother died I appreciated the consolation that my family and friends gave me. I can do the same for others. Jeez, maybe this even means I should join a church. I have heard they do things like this there.
I suppose I am glad I wrote this letter. It has helped me to think beyond myself. I sometimes feel bad that I get so caught up in my own problems that I can hardly pay any attention to other people’s problems. Now, I can see how compassion can help change all that. When you start looking at yourself and the world with compassion, then you are able to see your own problems and other people’s problems in a whole different light. Compassion makes me realize how all of us go through hard times at some point, and this makes me feel like we are all in this struggle together. It feels good to look beyond oneself, to step outside one’s own ego. That’s when we are able to feel connected to those around us. Maybe that’s how I know when I am feeling your presence—when I am able to get outside myself and feel at one with others. Wasn’t there a Bob Marley song about this? How do those lyrics go? “One love! One heart! Let’s get together and feel all right.” I am not even a Bob Marley fan, but those lyrics capture how I am feeling. My girlfriend is going to wonder what’s happened to me. She will think I have been smoking something, but a Macho guy can like Bob Marley, right?
They say prayer changes people. Maybe they are right. Maybe this letter has helped me to become a better person. Maybe it has given me a larger heart. I even feel as if I have something to give thanks for. I can give thanks for your compassion, and I can give thanks for the opportunity to share that compassion with others.
Sincerely,
The Most Macho Man in the World
“One Love” by Bob Marley
One Love! One Heart!
Let’s get together and feel all right.
Hear the children cryin’ (One Love!);
Hear the children cryin’ (One Heart!),
Sayin’: give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right;
Sayin’: let’s get together and feel all right. Wo wo-wo wo-wo!
Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (One Love!);
There is one question I’d really love to ask (One Heart!):
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner,
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own beliefs?
One Love! What about the one heart? One Heart!
What about – ? Let’s get together and feel all right
As it was in the beginning (One Love!);
So shall it be in the end (One Heart!),
All right!
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right;
Let’s get together and feel all right.
One more thing!