For centuries, we Christians have secretly used God's favorite word in all our prayers. To even mention it, I embrace great danger and peril and risk and other words that mean bad things could happen to me. This word, above all others ensures that God will hear your prayers and answer them quickly and awesomely. To put this powerful word in the hands of non-believers could mean that I am banished to the balcony at church and everyone knows that the holy spirit only touches people on the ground floor during service. But I must share. I am of course speaking of the word "just." Here is how we use it in prayers:
"Lord, just hear us tonight. We just lift up our hands to you and pray that you will just send you love down to us in ways we just can't understand. Take us just as we are Lord. Just, just. Just, just."
I added those four for emphasis but it's not far off from the truth. I'm not sure why we do but I should probably apologize. Next time someone prays you're going to have highly refined "just radar" and will probably be thinking in your head, "I hate that site stuff christians like."
(I just want to thank all the people that suggested this word just. There are just too many to thank individually.)
Monday, March 31, 2008
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41 comments:
That's true. So so so true! But I can't help myself! It's horrible! haha
Awesome post!
Have you ever noticed how many times when we pray we say something like, "And Lord God Jesus", or just repeat his name over and over? "Lord, I just want to ask you today, Lord God, to touch so and so, Jesus God" etc.
I actually did a speech on that in college for public speaking class- and got many comments later.
Not that I think there is anything wrong with addressing God by his many names- but let's put a little THOUGHT into it first. If my husband did that to me-- "Hey wife, could you get me, wife, something to eat, my precious wife"-- I'd have to start wearing ear plugs all the time!
I'm just sayin'--
I was actually thinking about this one in the car on the way to work this morning while listening to sugary sweet christian radio. I JUST don't understand why we have to include that word in every prayer.
what about the in the spirit act to double the just pleasure:
Lord, just...just...just hear us tonight. I'm looking for bigger words to impress just you and others with, but, just, hear our prayer.
Oh man, I didn't make this suggestion, but I should have! A few years ago I became aware of how often was say it in prayer (even though it is effectively minimizing the request!) it drove me mad.
It's hard to ignore now.
My just radar is now on thanks to you.
"just" is a word you will hear about 48billion times every sunday in a southern baptist church.
Okay, this is just an excellent post. I don't think God minds the 'over-justing' of our prayers, but I do think He loves thoughtful expression. "Just" becomes a meaningless verbal tick when it's endlessly repeated.
Yup. I've heard many a "just" used as a placeholder in spontaneous prayer while the prayer desperately tries to think of something to say, without having to actually stop talking. See also prayers along the lines of "We pray for Bill. Just 'be with him,' Lord." "Be with him" is a great thing to pray for someone when you want to wish someone well but can't think of anything particular about him.
Your dad mentioned the blog in a sermon I just listened to so I had to check you out. This is great stuff.
I'm going enjoy "leaning into" this blog and "unpacking" some of the extra truths you are "surfacing."
Hahaha..... so so guilty. It's funny because by trying to be genuine we are "just" adding another placeholder like "um". My radar is definitely on now.
did you already do a post about "let"? as in "God please just let Benny get home safely, and just let Janey's surgery go well..."
As if God is standing there, thinking about pushing poor Benny into the ditch, but heard your prayer and is now going to 'let' Benny get home.
...i judge people who do this. One 'just' and I'm thinking about Sunday dinner for the rest of the prayer.
Does that make me a bad person?
Wow, so true! I think it's more about making the prayer more fervent so God can hear it better, and to add some intense spirituality to the moment. God can understand heartfelt words even if you speak in a normal conversational tone.
AMEN! That, and using various names of God (usually "Lord Jesus") as punctuation, drive me insane. Luckily, around here, both things are typically found only at the Baptist churches. I am so far above them as a non-denominational attendee... ;o)
Listen to KJ52's CD "A Boy Called Jonah" and you will hear an overuse / abuse of "just" on a scale unprecedented in Christianity.
Seriously
My kids' 5th grade teacher (at a Christian school) had a theory about using "just" in prayer. He figured that it was kind of manipulative. As in, "Well, God, I don't want to ask for too much from you--you know, you're kind of busy and all--so, please just do such-and-such..."
It makes sense to me--but it does feel kind of comfy to, well, just throw it in now and again. Just in case...
To kimana83: Not only do people use "various names of God (usually "Lord Jesus") as punctuation", but some people also tend to heavily repeat one name of God in their prayer, as though they are reminding Him who they are talking to. Can you imagine if we did that in everyday conversation?
"Dear Steve, It's good, Steve, to see you today, Steve. Oh Steve, I'm just so glad, Steve, to know you, Steve. Steve, just, Steve, let, Steve, just... Steve."
I guess it's because we learn to pray by hearing other people pray, and therefore it's infiltrated everyone. It's just one of those things, that just creeps in, and you just can't get rid of it, but yeah I notice it heaps
I started reading this one and I thought to myself, "Oh PLEASE let the word be 'just.'" And then it was. Score!
preach it brother.
www.baltimoremosaic.blogspot.com
There was a guy I went to high school with that was super holy and always got called upon to pray in school assembly (Christian school), and we would all sit in the bleachers and count how many times he'd say "Father God".
Well, clearly this is so God can tell the difference between the Just and the Unjust.
yep, this one has bothered me for a LONG time.
Genius!
I have been unable to listen to 50% of prayers said in church for
years because of this frequent "just" nonsense! I couldn't put it
better myself!
AMEN! I like to believe that we are often guilty of not asking enough of God in our prayers and the word "just" reminds me of that. It's like we want his help with one tiny little thing, since we're so good at everything else. I like to count "just"s and "um"s.
Sure, this comment is several months overdue, but I just came across your website today and have spent the past hour or so laughing and crying and shaking my head in disbelief that there is someone out there who totally GETS this crazy way we Christians behave. I "'bout fell out" when I read the entry about coffee...oh was that fabulous. I really appreciate the May recap because I learned many things. About secret money-deliveries and secret bathrooms. Lots of good secrets. Priceless secrets.
Anyway, all my life, yes, all my life, I have LOATHED the use of "just" in communicating with God. But you know, it's one of those things you never say out loud because mainly you only think about when it's happening, which is likely a prayer, which is likely a bad time to bring up how much you just hated a person's sincere prayer to our Lord. Or at very least that you couldn't listen to their prayer because you were trying to recall those precious verses from James about holding your tongue. And by that time you let the sin win out and you were hating the person and their prayer. Okay, this is extreme, but I really have been there.
But WOW...it's so good to have someone air this one out. So good.
I'm indebted.
I haven't read all your posts yet, but I heard a great sermon recently (from a guy who would have scored well on your Metro Scale) about how you have to "share" rather than just talk. How you have to "fellowship" rather than throw a party. How you can never flippantly throw out there that you had been "lucky" in any way. And how you have to wear funny t-shirts that somehow take things of the world and turn them Christian (ie. using the Budweiser font and logo but saying "God's Wiser" instead).
Great work with this blog...I really think it's a healthy thing for us to see how we appear to the world and to laugh at how we behave. It's good to have this (humbling) dose of reality, thank you!
SO true.... reminds me of the part in "The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass" where a guy who gets up to pray starts swinging his arm back & forth & hits Adrian in the head. "Did I really do that?" he asks. Adrian's son replies, "Yes, you did. It was on your 25th "just" - I was counting."
bwahahaha... have been so tempted to count, so many times!!!
Guilty! Like the lifetime sentence kind of guilty. Just is a part of my normal vocabulary, so it's going to slide out of there during prayer. It is amazing how many meanings that little word has though. It means only most of the time, but sometimes it is solely there as an emphasis word (like a particle). Grammar lesson over.
But I will try to use it sparingly, or perhaps use the thesaurus to vary my emphasis words.
It also makes me hope in the verses about the Spirit interceding for us when we don't know what to say. Hopefully, God doesn't hear exactly what we say aloud, but what our heart says. Please, Spirit, translate our gibberish!
Haha so true. And I'm oh so guilty.
And thanks a lot... now I'm going to be subconsciously counting all the "justs" I hear at church tonight.
Great, just great.
I remember hearing a sermon where the pastor said we should stop praying that God would "just" do one thing or another. Ever since then it broke my habit, but I definitely notice it in other people. It kind of grates on me now.
So true!
Oh, i hate that word! It negates the authenticity of apologies and is used as filler, just like "um" "uh" and "like"...
i [try hard to] only use it when speaking of God's justice. He is just.
OH I talk about this all the time!!! This is so good to refer back to.
There's a guy at my parent's church (I don't live near there any more) whose "Lord's" I used to count when he prayed, to pass the time. I usually got into the 30s, IIRC. There are many forms of rote and repetition - formulas - that people use, frequently without realizing it.
I think this is what Jesus was referring to:
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Matthew 6:7 :)
I have always thought this!!!
This is Just and awesome post. I have just heard this over and over in prayers. Just thank you for posting this. This is just an incredible post.
I just can't believe how you just nailed that!
SO good! hahaa
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