Faith Works 1-2-2026
Jeff Gill
What you've envisioned might be the problem
___
Well, here we are.
2026 is upon us, and if last year was any indication, it will come along quickly. Let's climb aboard.
There's a tricky maneuver I need to engage here: I'm about to quote a scene from a television program that I am not, in any way, shape, or form recommending you watch. Not from this platform, anyhow!
If you want profanity and violence and the occasional dash of adult content, there's plenty of it out there. And I'm not often thinking I need my entertainment, broadcast or streaming, to give me of it than the world already provides.
However. I ended up watching the opening a year or so ago of "Landman" with the always interesting Billy Bob Thornton, and it sucked me in good. Based on a podcast series I'd heard parts of called "Boomtown" it's set in Midland, Texas and it's about the oil business, and the economy, and family life in these United States in all its brokenness and possibility.
Anyhow, a ways into the first season, Thornton's character Tommy is getting back together, maybe, with his ex-wife Angela, who moves into the oil company rented home that already had some other staff living there, including Nate, a corporate lawyer, whose background appears a bit more buttoned up and middle class than the Norris family.
As part of this attempt at reconciliation, Angela makes a very fancy dinner for her husband, two adult children, plus Nate and Dale, another oil rig supervisor living in the house. No one gets home at the time she had announced, but finally everyone is assembled around the dining room table, and she launches into a prayer which, I have to admit, had me thinking "I need to use this in a column" pretty early on. It was sincere, heartfelt, and incredibly inappropriate as well as longer than a preacher's grace.
Just as I was thinking about that, Nate leans over to Dale and whispers "First time I've heard blasphemy in a prayer."
Look, Nate wasn't wrong. But I have to admit, my thinking was actually how Angie's self-absorption is less unusual than it seemed to Nate. She was being pretty upfront about it, but I have heard my share of at least self-centered blasphemy-lite in prayers before.
Which becomes clearer as the meal proceeds, as Angela displays increasing anxiety & frustration with the reality that things around the happy family table were not turning out the way she had envisioned. Before she has a complete meltdown, Tommy follows her out into the kitchen, and frankly does a remarkably good job of laying out for her that while she had a very clear picture in her mind how that dinner was supposed to go, they didn't all see the same vision.
The point being, not sharing the vision in every detail is not the same as disrespecting the person who holds it tight, even when it might feel that way. They liked her meal, they said so, and asked for seconds, which as Tommy points out is the highest praise Dale knows. They just kept calling it spaghetti and not "bolognese."
What Tommy was trying to tell her was she was being appreciated, but her vision was getting in the way. And — remember I am NOT suggesting you run out and watch "Landman" — what it made me think of was how prayers that are focused on our wishes, our desires, can get in the way of being in communication with God, which should be the actual point of prayer. How we want things to go can blind us to what God is already doing.
Which is not a bad thought for heading into Epiphany. Like the wise men, be ready to return home by another way. (You CAN look up that reference. Matthew 2.)
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he thinks about how all sorts of things can fit into columns & sermons. Tell him where you hear God nudging us at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Xwitter.
Jeff Gill
What you've envisioned might be the problem
___
Well, here we are.
2026 is upon us, and if last year was any indication, it will come along quickly. Let's climb aboard.
There's a tricky maneuver I need to engage here: I'm about to quote a scene from a television program that I am not, in any way, shape, or form recommending you watch. Not from this platform, anyhow!
If you want profanity and violence and the occasional dash of adult content, there's plenty of it out there. And I'm not often thinking I need my entertainment, broadcast or streaming, to give me of it than the world already provides.
However. I ended up watching the opening a year or so ago of "Landman" with the always interesting Billy Bob Thornton, and it sucked me in good. Based on a podcast series I'd heard parts of called "Boomtown" it's set in Midland, Texas and it's about the oil business, and the economy, and family life in these United States in all its brokenness and possibility.
Anyhow, a ways into the first season, Thornton's character Tommy is getting back together, maybe, with his ex-wife Angela, who moves into the oil company rented home that already had some other staff living there, including Nate, a corporate lawyer, whose background appears a bit more buttoned up and middle class than the Norris family.
As part of this attempt at reconciliation, Angela makes a very fancy dinner for her husband, two adult children, plus Nate and Dale, another oil rig supervisor living in the house. No one gets home at the time she had announced, but finally everyone is assembled around the dining room table, and she launches into a prayer which, I have to admit, had me thinking "I need to use this in a column" pretty early on. It was sincere, heartfelt, and incredibly inappropriate as well as longer than a preacher's grace.
Just as I was thinking about that, Nate leans over to Dale and whispers "First time I've heard blasphemy in a prayer."
Look, Nate wasn't wrong. But I have to admit, my thinking was actually how Angie's self-absorption is less unusual than it seemed to Nate. She was being pretty upfront about it, but I have heard my share of at least self-centered blasphemy-lite in prayers before.
Which becomes clearer as the meal proceeds, as Angela displays increasing anxiety & frustration with the reality that things around the happy family table were not turning out the way she had envisioned. Before she has a complete meltdown, Tommy follows her out into the kitchen, and frankly does a remarkably good job of laying out for her that while she had a very clear picture in her mind how that dinner was supposed to go, they didn't all see the same vision.
The point being, not sharing the vision in every detail is not the same as disrespecting the person who holds it tight, even when it might feel that way. They liked her meal, they said so, and asked for seconds, which as Tommy points out is the highest praise Dale knows. They just kept calling it spaghetti and not "bolognese."
What Tommy was trying to tell her was she was being appreciated, but her vision was getting in the way. And — remember I am NOT suggesting you run out and watch "Landman" — what it made me think of was how prayers that are focused on our wishes, our desires, can get in the way of being in communication with God, which should be the actual point of prayer. How we want things to go can blind us to what God is already doing.
Which is not a bad thought for heading into Epiphany. Like the wise men, be ready to return home by another way. (You CAN look up that reference. Matthew 2.)
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he thinks about how all sorts of things can fit into columns & sermons. Tell him where you hear God nudging us at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Xwitter.
