We give trophies for everything it seems.

I know I'm old as dirt (and some of you are older than dirt), but gee-wiz! When I was a kid, you didn't get a trophy for walking across the street or making some kind of half-hearted effort.

But maybe we should.

Last week I wrote a couple prayer devotions on the topic of failure. We have enough of those, don't we?

What if we gave trophies out for our failure?

Maybe there is a trophy already there.

In his book Prayer, author Ole Hallesby summed it up this way, "Prayer and helplessness are inseparable. Only he who is helpless can truly pray. Your helplessness is your best prayer."

Where are you most broken? Where in your life do you feel most ill equipped? Where are the odds stacked most highly against you?

If you can identify that spot in your life, congratulations-your helplessness may usher you into your best experience of prayer.

Now think about the church for a moment. Where are we helpless? Where are we struggling? Where do we need God to show up most?

Pray about that ... because our helplessness is the key to our prayerfulness. And the more self-sufficient and capable with are...the less dependent we are upon God.

Maybe that's our problem. Maybe our greatest point of helplessness is that we don't think of ourselves as helpless.

God help us.