I hope I can word this so that it conveys what I am thinking:
I've been thinking about the power of prayer.
Prayer was so perverted in the charismatic realm that we were a part of that for years I didn't want anything to do with prayer, didn't want to talk about it, shied away from any conversation about it, laughed at people who believed in it because what I had learned about prayer wasn't reality.
But, I would still catch myself without thinking sitting outside looking at the moon and stars and talking to ..... the universe. prayer.
Since I've started chatting with some of the women on Dr. E's facebook page I've been giving this some serious thought and here is what I have come up with in the circles of my mind.
Prayer... is it us begging an aloof, all powerful god to turn and look at us, to bestow just a drop of kindness and compassion on us poor, pitiful, weak creatures and every once in a while the all powerful being reluctantly gives in because we just won't shut up.
OR
is it the power of many people speaking and believing with one mind and one voice, tapping into some unknown power in the universe and causing something to happen, a healing, an intervention, a change??
Because you see, I do believe in the that power, God, if you will but these days I do not claim to understand how all that works ie., I don't have God in a box anymore.
8 comments:
Sometimes I think prayer is what we do when we can't do anything else. In my mind that doesn't devalue it, it just makes it something different than what I've always thought it was.
Most Christians I know try to create some sort of formula out of it, and if for some reason your prayer isn't answered your part of the formula was bad meaning either you didn't pray enough or there is something wrong in your life so that the prayer couldn't be answered the way you wanted. That doesn't create an image of a God I want to know.
but, do you believe in the power of prayer, does it effect the universe in any way or is it just wishing and hoping?
I think it's a few things. If you are a person of faith, you are speaking directly to God. If you are in a different mindset, it can be verbal affirmations or positive thinking.
The book , The Secret - sounds like this to me.
A, I don't know that I really and truly believe in the power of prayer. It's such a gray area for me. There are too many instances in which I've known people to pray and believe only for the opposite of what they wanted to happen. It's never made sense to me how one person can pray and the prayer is answered and another can pray and it isn't.
In order for prayer to work in the sense that a group of people can pray and believe strongly enough to change things, I would have to accept that if the thing doesn't change the people were somehow lacking and I can't seem to accept that as truth. Or I would have to accept that sometimes we just happen to be praying with the will of the universe and that is why the prayer is answered the way we want it too be. If that's the case our prayer isn't really changing anything.
I can never get it to balance out in my mind. Why some prayers seem to be answered and some are not is a complete mystery to me.
Still, I find myself whispering words of prayer. More often than not I find myself sending love, light, and strength to those that I know need it rather than asking for a specific circumstance to change.
Maybe I'm just jaded.
maybe it is just that I believe there is a power or maybe that there is power not even specifically a "higher" power but just power in the universe, that there is a magic that we can tap into
i don't for a minute believe in the kind of prayer where you ask for something and it happens, if that were true our Emily wouldn't be in the shape she is in but I do believe there is something. I feel it in my bones when I walk under the stars and when I sing to the moon or sit in my healing circle. there is something more powerful than I understand in the bond between me and my kids. I just believe with all my heart that there is something that we yet don't know.
you know what I mean?
I completely understand what you mean. I believe in that "something more" too. I'm just not sure how prayer fits into that something more.
Like you said, I don't have it all figured out or in a box.
Here's to our continued search for "something more".
I love you.
I love you too sweet Cara.
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