Who's in Charge Here?

Iconic artist Arnold Friberg died on July 1st. Among other heroic paintings of his was that of George Washington kneeling in prayer with his horse at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania during our Revolutionary War. He told the Salt Lake Tribune in 2000 that “I did that [painting, The Prayer at Valley Forge] to pay tribute to Washington, to portray the burden that fell upon one lonely man.” Friberg went on: “I’m a hero worshiper. I have to respect, almost idolize, whatever I paint. I don’t belong in the art world at all; I’m a storyteller.”

That painting tells a great story. To me, the story is that General Washington, ostensibly in charge of America’s destiny, recognized his dependence upon Almighty God and knew that he needed God’s help and blessings if we were to succeed in our great endeavor. Prayer was the key to getting that help.

Like Arnold Friberg, I, too, have my heroes, and I know my source of help. Even surpassing George Washington, in my mind, is Abraham Lincoln. In Meridian Magazine (online edition) I recently saw a short You Tube video featuring a painting by Larry Winborg of Abraham Lincoln kneeling in prayer. The painting was surely inspired by Friberg’s classic of Washington, and like it, the subject matter was completely historic. With what was to become the turning point of the Civil War at Gettysburg Lincoln said that “I got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed mightily before him… [and] soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul; the feeling came that God had taken the whole business into his own hands and that things would go right at Gettysburg.”

Notice that Lincoln didn’t say “I said a prayer,” he said “I…prayed mightily before him….”

A little verse that I keep in my head goes,
“The heights by great men reached and kept
were not attained by sudden flight.
But they, while their companions slept,
were upward toiling in the night.”

Like Washington and Lincoln, I think a little of the toiling we all must do, when we feel our own feeble efforts are insufficient to the task at hand—which is most of the time--is done on our knees and is done in “mighty prayer.”

“Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed,
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.”
(James Montgomery)