from Yancey's Prayer... pg 24

Frederick Buechner notes: God asked Adam and Eve 2 penetrating questions after their first act of disobedience: 'Where are you?' and 'What is this you have done?' Therapists, he remarks, have been asking the same questions ever since. 'Where are you?' exposes the present reality. They are hiding, naked, ravaged by never-before-known feelings of guilt and shame. "What is this that you have done?" exposes the past. In his encounter with Adam and Eve, God sets forth the consequences of their behaviour and then provides clothing to equip them for the new state they have brought about. 'They cannot go back, but they can go forward clothed in a new way... the result any good therapist hopes to accomplish.

from page 27. subtitle: Helpless

A character in one of Henry Adam's novels cries out in frustration "Why must the church always appeal to my weakness and never to my strength!" I can think of several reasons. In a world that glorifies success, an admission of weakness disarms pride at the same time that it prepares us to receive grace. Meanwhile, the very weakness that drives us to pray becomes an invitation for God to respond with compassion and power.