“God, give me guts.”

So prayed Eli Mygatt as he defended his hometown of Danbury during the Revolutionary War while the British were burning it.

Mygatt cut straight to the chase, without fancy phrases or flourishes, speaking plainly to God in his plain need.

I think this is the very best way to pray.

Honest. Basic. Real.

The way you talk when there’s no room for pretending and no point in trying to impress anyone, least of all God.

Because life is hard, and you know, God knows this. It takes a ton of guts to really live.

Being honest and brave and being who you really are takes a ton of guts.

Working hard to pick up the mess in a house or the mess in a life takes a ton of guts.

The mess of a world can’t ever be cleaned up without a ton of guts.

It’s far too easy to fit in, swallow words we really want to say, passively accept the status quo even when we know that the status quo stinks. Who has the guts to stand while fire’s burning all around?

Someone said that the phrase “do not be afraid” appears 365 times in the Bible. I have no idea if this is true, and frankly no desire to check it out personally. I do know that the phrase is there. A lot. Because life is hard and takes courage to live, and God knows this.

He knows it’s scary to be us. Scary to speak up when something needs to be said, to stand up for what’s worth standing up for, to walk through the fire instead of running away from it.

Maybe being a peacemaker isn’t about staying quiet and keeping the peace, but speaking up for those who don’t have any.

Maybe we all just need to put some skin on our faith and take it right out into the world and just plain do for the least of these.

And yeah, we’re gonna need some guts to do it. Three hundred and sixty-five days’ worth ought to be enough.

~xo,
LuAnne