Show that underbelly

“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?" (Matthew 7:7-8)

There is this tendency to be a little 'indirect' with God - we 'skirt around' what it is we actually want to say to him and what we need so desperately to ask from him. To 'be direct' just isn't how some of us are built - we sort of share what we want to share, but we never really get down to the 'brass tax', so to speak. We don't get to the core of what we really desire - the issue remaining unexplained, unexplored, and unmet.

Ask for what you need. Seems pretty easy, right? Yet, we know how 'intentional' we must be if we are to be open and honest with God and others. To share from the heart, not just the surface, requires vulnerability and that doesn't come easy to any of us. If you have had a dog or cat, you know that when they roll over and show their bellies, they are being very 'vulnerable'. They cannot run while on their bellies. Their neck is quite open to an 'attack' - should you want to do them harm, you could very easily. Yet, they do it because they hope for a little rub and some much-desired attention. Maybe being 'vulnerable' with God and others is a little risky - we are making ourselves open to something we didn't expect, but we know we really want very much.

I think this is why God asks us to be direct - because he wants to do something in us that we never expected, but that we really desperately need. Being vulnerable with God is more than not being able to run away - it is us being willing to lay before him while he touches us where we are most 'vulnerable'. When we take the first step toward being direct - admitting what we desire - we can begin to feel the touch of God that actually brings us closer to him. That dog or cat doesn't run from the loving touch of the hand rubbing their underbelly - they lean into it and enjoy every stroke. Maybe it is time we 'lean into' God, letting go of our inhibitions and becoming a little more 'vulnerable' with him. Just sayin!