Why do I pray for things to be different – for myself to be kinder, for the world to value the least and lost, for strength and wisdom to move from folded hands praying to boots on the ground praying? Is prayer meant to change me or to change something and somebody beyond me? Do I trust that my prayers are heard by a loving creator, or is it all so much whistling in the dark?
I trust that there is more good than evil in this world, and that most people are kind when given the chance. I am not self-created, and I trust the life force that brought me and everything else into being. I know that sincere prayer has changed me, and that the prayers of others have blessed me in ways I cannot comprehend. I know that no one becomes her or his best self in isolation, that no one makes it through life without the loving presence of others. Or, as Jane Goodall puts it:
Can we live in a way that honors all life?
We can, with God’s help.
This is truly serendipitous, or of the Spirit–I was thinking about prayer–in particular intercessory prayer–and trying to put my finger on why I am averse to the standard way of thinking about prayer like that…and I wandered over to check out your thoughts for the day, and you were wrestling with the same thing! Your reflections–your sense that you have been helped in ways you can’t even know or understand–helped me to think more deeply about what is really happening in prayer.
When I was in my late teens, the recently hired minister at my Baptist church told me that God had laid it on his heart that I was to leave the University of New Hampshire (too much of the world) and go to Bob Jones University to become a pastor’s wife – not to study because I might have a ministry, but to marry someone who would have a ministry. I did my best to be civil when I said that I didn’t think that was where God was leading me, and a few months later I joined the congregational church. Years later, after my own seminary studies, I married a man who became a minister.
Looking back, I truly believe pastor Jim Nason had a sense of something in my future – he just interpreted in in a limited way that worked for his world view. But I’m grateful for his prayers and his willingness to speak up – and I suspect my interpretations have been equally as limited. Still, there’s something holy there.
Thanks, David.