Hula-Hoop and Prayer?

You probably already wonder what Hula-Hooping and praying could possibly have in common. What could I say beyond showing you this funny picture?

Here’s the point I want to make. A lot of things you pray for can seem impossible (would that I would become a more faithful person). You work at it, you get frustrated, you give up. Then somehow something happens, and you know it wasn’t from any work you did. What was hard came easy. You just did it.

There’s an old Guideposts story by newspaperwoman Adela Rogers St. Johns, who interviewed the sister of the Wright Brothers. The woman described all the Wright Brothers’ struggles in building a successful airplane. They thought it would never stay airborne. One thing after another went wrong. “But then one day it flew,” she said. It just flew.

Well, I could never Hula-Hoop when I was a kid. I’d try and I’d try. I’d spin the thing around my waist and it would just as fast drop to the ground. How could anybody do it?

Then not long ago, we were at a summer barbecue with a Hawaiian theme and someone announced that there’d be a Hula-Hoop contest. “Geez, how humiliating,” I thought. “That’s something I’ll be sure to lose.” Against my will, only to be a good sport, I walked out on the lawn and hoisted the Hula-Hoop around my waist.

Guess what? The thing didn’t fall to my feet. It stayed right where it was supposed to. I don’t know how, but it did. Like magic. I could have echoed the Wright Brothers: “And then one day, it flew.”

Prayer is about trust. Prayer is something you do even if you don’t think it’s going to make any difference. Prayer is reaching for the impossible and discovering it wasn’t so hard after all.

But then, maybe you could Hula-Hoop all along.