The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Babylon (10)
Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; Romans 8:26 NASB
Groanings too deep for words – What happens when words fail us? Does that mean we can’t communicate? Not at all. We all know that communication isn’t limited to verbalization. We know the language of tears, laughter, and touch. We know the silent aches, the unutterable joy, the message in an act. But we don’t often think that God communicates in the same way. We’re stuck with the cognitive God, the “word” God, the One Who reveals His will on a printed page or a copied scroll. We forget that nearly all the history of Israel’s interaction with God happened when there wasn’t any gilded-edge book with chapters and verses. Stone reminds us:
“The conflation . . . of our very notion of discourse to include more than just verbal communication, is critical. We learn that what we call discourse, the use of language to achieve understanding, does not require restricting the meaning of language to words. There are other types of discourse, and languages, besides the language of words—the language of deeds, of love, and of responsibility . . .”[1]
Why do we need to be reminded? Because “groanings inexpressible” are important connections with God. That’s what the Greek text really says. stenagmóis alalētois. This is how we sometimes communicate with God and God speaks to us in inexpressible ways too. Especially when we are faced with the overwhelming debt of being alive. What can you really say to God about the life you squandered, the times you chose something other than His way, the refusal to listen to that whispered reminder? “I’m sorry”? No, I don’t think so. That hardly scratches the surface of our regret, remorse, and despair. Frankly, there just aren’t any words capable of communicating the heart-desperation we feel. Tears maybe; words, not at all.
Why do we pause to even bring up such a painful situation? Aren’t we really just trying to figure out how to get on the watchfulness track? Yes, of course, but watchfulness won’t start until we confront our resistance to His prompting. Not just our deliberate rebellion. That’s obvious. No, we’re trying to get behind all that, back to the ego center of being alive that is so easily corrupted by the yetzer ha’ra. We can’t be scared into this kind of repentance. We’re not trying to reap some heavenly reward. We’re trying to become human, to manifest the reality of the yetzer ha’tov after so many years of developing the yetzer ha’ra. It’s all the disobedient details that matter. Our goal is simple: “When the trait of watchfulness attains its highest development, it is called ‘the fear of sin’ . . .”[2] That’s what we really need. Fear of sin. Fear of damaging the invisible relationship with God, sometimes without even knowing we are doing so until afterward. We’ve taught ourselves to desensitize awareness of stenagmóis alalētois. We don’t listen for the inexpressible anymore. The world just shouts too loudly.
Perhaps it will help if we first clean up this verse. The English Bible versions are loaded with Trinitarian doctrine (you know, capital S for spirit, and things like that). Let’s try a Jewish version:
And in the same way as well, the yetzer ha-tov joins in efforts to offset our deficiency since we do not know the thing for which we duly should be praying to the extent necessary. And so instead, the yetzer ha-tov itself sways with inexpressible sighs.[3]
Now the issue isn’t located with some nebulous “person” called the Holy Spirit but rather in the essential constitution of being human, i.e., the nexus of yetzer ha’ra and yetzer ha’tov. It is absolutely true that we are but dust, but that does not mean we are powerless. We are created with and through God’s animating breath. That animating breath is our connection to the divine, found in us in the yetzer ha’tov, the desire for the good, the desire to fulfill our human destiny in the service to another. That desire may be inexpressible simply because it is beyond our cognitive functions, but it is nevertheless constantly present, ready and willing to direct us toward the God who created us in His image. We can’t always articulate what we need at this level of being, but we can give sway to the desire even if that is expressed only in sighs. In fact, I’m very sure that you already know what this is like. Sometimes prayer is simply silent yearning. That’s the yetzer ha’tov reconnecting with God. Let it be. It’s good exercise.
Step 10: Pray without speaking
Topical Index: prayer, stenagmóis alalētois, words inexpressible, yetzer ha’tov, Romans 8:26
[1] Ira F. Stone, in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 51.
[2] Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 51.
[3] Uriel be-Mordechai, Kosher Paul, p. 116.
