February 15, 2023
“The Toughest Thing for Me to Do”: A Prayer
O Lord, as you well know, it's the toughest thing for me to do,
and what is so tough to do is:
zip it,
keep my big mouth closed,
just shut up and not say a word;
because,
well,
the thing is,
once I get rolling
it's hard to stop rolling;
a regular motor-mouth at times,
not easy to put on the brakes;
a real yackety-yak yacker needing to
put a sock in it;
in a word,
zip it;
at least,
that's the
new advice
out there:
zip it;
because
we live in a culture that
talks, talks, talks,
a culture of talkers,
talkers talking their way to
twitter followers in the millions, to
videos going viral, to
becoming YouTube celebrities, to
racking up 2 million podcasts, to
producing 48 million episodes,
and TED talks too,
and more still;
a culture of
meetings,
a billion a year,
most accomplishing nothing,
meeting anyway,
another chance to
talk
(as in, talk something to death);
a culture
in which people
tweet for the sake of tweeting,
text for the sake of texting,
talk for the sake of talking;
and men (sorry guys)
are the worst,
bulldozing,
hogging the floor,
jumping in, interrupting,
talking over others talking,
delivering nonstop “manologues”;
and the thing is,
it can cost
a job,
a marriage,
a relationship
with a child, a friend, a neighbor;
blurting out things best not blurted out;
saying things without thinking;
offending with offensive comments;
talking at, telling, not talking with;
lecturing, not listening;
politicians
taking the cake,
cruel, stupid, insensitive things say;
but have good company,
hateful, spiteful, brainless things people say;
Christians often no better,
making skin crawl when hear
what said in the name of Jesus;
and the thing is,
costs us dearly,
as a nation,
as a society,
as people,
and so,
the advice is:
zip it.
And Lord, don't know about anyone else, can't speak for anyone else,
all I know is
it is advice
I need to heed;
and I know that to be true
because
it's what the Spirit is always
telling me,
saying in my head,
sounding in my ear,
speaking in my mind:
“Jeff, just shut up for a minute!”
“Take a breath now and then!”
“Give it a rest!”
and the Spirit
is constantly
on my back
because
when
open my mouth,
my ears close,
no longer hear
what others saying,
too busy saying
what I'm saying,
no chance
for other to get word in edgewise,
hearing only myself,
“manologue” time;
no wonder
the Spirit
always saying to me:
zip it!
And that is my prayer, O Lord, and as a matter of fact, it is
my prayer every night,
my prayer that I have the
strength, discipline, self-control,
to shut up
and listen;
my prayer for myself,
no one else,
because
can’t pray it for anyone else,
must pray it for themselves,
if need to;
but
maybe we all do,
because
it's what is
killing our nation,
everyone talking, but
no one talking to one another,
no one hearing one another,
no one listening to one another;
my prayer is
that I will have
sense enough to
think carefully about what say,
say nothing if have nothing to say,
be silent as I do talk, and
stop putting big foot in big mouth,
stop saying anything to keep saying something,
stop silliness of saying silly things to keep
disquieting quiet from quieting,
that we all have
such sense;
my prayer is
that I will have
thoughtfulness enough, kindness enough, love enough, and
that we all of us will, to
zip it,
and allow others
to shine.
And we pray, Lord, that you would heal and calm the fears and
lift in hope, those who are ill, who are suffering and
hurting, who are dying, who are grieving, who
are struggling with depression, and the
hungry and homeless and refugees
of this world;
and move us
as your people
to be there for them and do whatever we can to help.
O Lord, I've done it again, run on and on, run on and on about
not running on and on,
not talking, talking, talking,
not yackety-yacketing yakking,
and so
maybe the
best thing to do
would be to
zip it
and say...
Amen.