Sometimes when we feel particularly stuck or anxious about something a friend may say, 'Maybe it's time to give it to God.' Sometimes we remember to say it to ourselves. We've done all we can with whatever it is. It's time to quit stewing, fretting, reviewing.
Insight and prayer like this is a wonderful spaciousness practice. We start feeling cramped, then in a moment of sanity and a movement toward trust we connect with God. This doesn't mean we don't have a problem anymore. It means we've recognized we're stuck and and are choosing to get help.
But in doing this we're not really imagining God is reorganizing the world to make our problems go away, are we?
It's more like this. A serious gardening friend, Tom, used to start his own seeds in his garage. Lots of seeds. He's a wonderful gardener but not much of a seed-starter. Interestingly, one of his neighbors runs a commercial greenhouse. This guy is really good at turning seeds into baby plants. Ah! Maybe it's time to give it to Neil--which is what Tom does these days.
For the last few years Tom has ordered his usual wonderful variety of seeds, and when they come in the mail he gives them to Neil who gives them back in a month or two transformed and neatly arranged in a dozen or so trays of ready-to-plant veggies.
I have little idea what happens specifically when we give our problems to God. Perhaps the more specific we get when we talk about it the further we get from being faithful to the mystery of prayer, the mystery of God. I do know, metaphorically anyway, that seeds sprout wonderfully in this trusting sort of interaction and that life is more more fruitful because of it.
