Internal Draft
Chapter 1Prayer Post Office
Say It. Send It. Surrender It.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
How much of Prayer Post Office was already being written before we knew it was a book?
Some books begin with an idea.
Others begin with a deadline.
Some begin with a title scribbled on a napkin, a note in a phone, or a sentence that refuses to leave you alone.
And some books are lived for decades before the first chapter is named.
I am beginning to believe Prayer Post Office is one of those.
The title is new.
The testimony is not.
Prayer has been showing up in my life for years—in joy, in confusion, in gratitude, in fear, in family, in interruption, in unexpected provision, and in those strange moments when several disconnected pieces suddenly seem to belong to the same story.
Romans 8:28 moments.
Not moments where everything is easy.
Not moments where every outcome is what I would have chosen.
But moments where, looking back, I can see that God was not absent from the mess.
He was already at work within it.
That distinction matters.
Prayer is not a guarantee that life will follow our preferred itinerary.
It is not a spiritual tracking number that lets us demand delivery by Friday.
It is not a way to place an order with God and become irritated when the package looks different from what we requested.
Prayer is relationship.
Prayer is honesty.
Prayer is dependence.
Prayer is trust.
Prayer is learning to speak plainly to God and then surrendering our need to control His response.
That is where the name Prayer Post Office began to make sense to me.
We say it.
We send it.
We surrender it.
Not because God is distant.
Not because He needs help receiving the message.
And certainly not because Heaven operates like a postal sorting facility.
The metaphor works because many of us know what it feels like to carry something that needs to be sent.
A fear.
A question.
A regret.
A request.
A thank-you.
A confession.
A hope.
A name.
A situation we can no longer carry comfortably by ourselves.
Prayer gives us somewhere to take it.
More accurately, prayer gives us Someone to take it to.
And that changes everything.
Oh, Henry!
Henry, my Jamaican tennis partner, deserves an honorable mention.
An atheist, he was athletic, strong, and a formidable player. He even rode his bicycle to the courts before giving me a workout on them.
Between points, I sometimes looked upward.
“Thank You, LORD, for this amazing day!”
Other times, my prayer was more practical.
“LORD, help me get my act together. I’m playing terribly!”
Henry would shake his head.
“Who are you talking to.”
“To God!”
“Thsss.”
That was his sarcastic “kiss your teeth” sound of disapproval.
“No Mon. Ain’t nobody up dere listenin’ to you!”
He often teased me about my prayers. Eventually, he became so fed up with my faith that he bought a Bible. He planned to study it and disprove it to me the following weekend.
I smiled.
“Wah gwaan?”—“What’s going on?” in Jamaican Patois.
“What you smilin’ at now!?”
“God works in mysterious ways, my friend,” I replied.
Henry wanted to prove me wrong. But first, he was going to read.
That was enough to make me smile.
A Noble Note
We cannot choose what someone else will believe. We can let them see our faith in everyday life—and meet their questions with patience, friendship, and love.
A Noble Prayer
Lord Jesus, bless the friends who question my faith. Help me hear them with respect and answer with kindness. Keep me from treating a conversation like a match I need to win. Let my life reflect Your love, on the court and off. Amen.
Where Do I Begin?
Does the thought of reading the Bible feel intimidating?
Sixty-six books. So many names. So much history.
Let me offer a starting place for what I affectionately call God’s Owner’s Manual—the Bible, written for us.
To get to know Jesus—His deity and His humanity—begin with the Gospel of John. Take your time. Notice what He says, how He treats people, and what He reveals about Himself and the Father.
Each biblical book has its own setting, purpose, and message. Together, the Bible’s 66 books unfold God’s redemptive story, centered on Jesus Christ.
And when personal struggles leave you wondering what to say to God, turn to Psalms.
You will find joy and gratitude there. Also grief, fear, anger, loneliness, questions, and doubt. You will hear people crying out over injustice, betrayal, and troubles they cannot resolve themselves.
Sound familiar?
The Psalms give us language for bringing our inner lives to God. They remind us that honest prayer can include both “Thank You” and “How long?”
You don’t have to pretend to be peaceful before you pray.
Start where you are.
Read a little. Ask a sincere question. Bring what you discover—and what you still don’t understand—to God.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
A Noble Note
Begin with John to get to know Jesus. Turn to Psalms to find words for your heart. Let reading become a conversation with God.
A Noble Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me understand what I read and know You more deeply. When a passage puzzles me, give me patience to keep learning. When it speaks to my heart, help me respond. Teach me to bring You my questions, my struggles, and my gratitude—and to live what You reveal. Amen.
Reflection
The First Delivery
One of the earliest truths forming underneath this book is simple:
God does not require polished language before He listens.
That is good news for anyone who has ever thought:
I don’t know how to pray.
I don’t know what to say.
I’ve already said this a hundred times.
I’m too angry to pray.
I’m too disappointed to pray.
I’m not spiritual enough to pray.
I don’t even know what I believe right now.
Perhaps the first lesson of the Prayer Post Office is this:
Send it anyway.
Bring the confusion.
Bring the gratitude.
Bring the complaint.
Bring the question.
Bring the silence.
Bring the tears.
Bring the awkwardness.
Bring the words that do not sound religious enough.
God is not grading sentence structure.
He is after truth in the heart.
That is why honest prayer matters more than impressive prayer.
And that is why this book will not be about teaching people how to sound spiritual.
It will be about learning to speak honestly to God and trust Him with the answer.
There is so much inside that one verse.
In everything.
Not only emergencies.
Not only church matters.
Not only polished requests.
Everything.
And then comes a word we will return to often in this book:
thanksgiving.
Not thanksgiving after everything works out.
Thanksgiving within the prayer itself.
Before the answer.
During the uncertainty.
While the request is still in transit, so to speak.
That changes the posture of prayer.
We are no longer merely asking:
God, will You do what I want?
We begin asking:
God, what are You doing here?
That is a very different prayer.
What would change if you stopped trying to control the answer and simply told God the truth?
Not the polished version.
The real version.
That is where prayer can begin again.
Application
Your Turn
Before you move on, take one concern you are carrying right now.
Do not improve it.
Do not explain it.
Do not make it sound faithful.
Write one sentence to God exactly as you feel it.
“I trust You with what happens next.”
That is enough for today.
A Noble Prayer
Lord Jesus,
teach me to pray honestly.
Strip away performance, fear, and the need to sound impressive.
Help me bring You what is real.
What I understand.
What I do not understand.
What I hope for.
What I fear.
What I am grateful for.
And what I still struggle to surrender.
Teach me to say it.
Teach me to send it.
Teach me to surrender it.
And when I cannot see what You are doing, help me trust that You are still present.
Amen.
Prayer Post Office
We send it.
We surrender it.
The One who holds the beginning and the end can be trusted with everything in between.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
“Humanity: We are one human family under one Almighty God.”
“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order…”
— 1 Corinthians 15:22–23 (excerpt)