Why Pray?

The banner headline on the front page of Monday's St. Paul Pioneer-Press was classic:

Fargo's prayers are answered

came from the crest of the Red River a few feet short of what had been predicted.

Does that mean that if the Red River hadn’t stopped rising would that have been a failure of prayer? Did the (so far) lower crest show that prayer works?

Did the safe landing in the Hudson Rivera few months ago prove that the prayers of those on board were answered? Would it have been a failure of prayer if it hadn’t worked?

Does the continued illness of someone show that they don’t have enough faith?

Such are some of the many questions, problems, and conundrums of prayer. Like the question about the existence of God I posted last week, these have been the downfall of some believers. Or they have been the way that someone else found renewed faith. I wish I had easy answers. Some will give them. Some will give long complex theological arguments. None of the answers satisfy everyone. Some will even offend some people.

When faced with these questions I am always reminded of the story of the Rabbi who was asked for the secret of prayer. His answer was the ultimate of simplicity, but not necessarily of ease:

Don’t pray for rain in the dry season.

That is a lot like simply pray for God’s will- and whatever happens is then God’s will.
Or it could be pray for the natural and normal ways to occur- and whatever happens is normal and natural.

I agree with the thought, but like so many wise and profoundly simple statements, wisdom leads to more questions than answers. I like to think it says that prayer is not to be an attempt to change the mind of God to do what you want God to do. Instead start with a very basic understanding that God is still in charge of the world. God is still God- and we still are not. It is that simple. That is the starting point of prayer. We know we are not God- nor are we even gods. We are us.

Then, no matter what, trust that the presence of God will be at work in us and around us because we allow ourselves to remain in God’s presence.