Prayer Is Dead

Perhaps you were shocked by the title of this entry. That's alright. But now that that's out of the way, I believe prayer can be resurrected. But first I need to explain the title.

Prayer, as it is in common usage among us Christians, is many times nothing more than a sacralized version of the Make-a-Wish Foundation. So usually it means that the person requesting the prayers is really asking that God make things turn out the way the person wants them. "My prayers were answered," usually means, "My wish came true."

I believe this kind of prayer is dead, not because people no longer employ such prayers, but because of what it says about God-- that God is far away on the other end of the line. This kind of God is dead because this kind of God doesn't exist. Prayer, then, of this type is useless and senseless.

My last post asked the question of the validity of saying "if A=B, then B=A" when it comes to the phrase, "God is love." I'm going to say yes and move on from there. God is pure, unselfish, other-serving, willful, love. Where this love is found, there God is found. This takes the idea of love beyond our constructs, abstractions, and emotions into a realm that is highly universal in its scope.

We meet this love in the face of Christ, who showed and revealed the Father, and who is the presence of Divine Love. This love has a human face, just like we have human faces. With that in mind, perhaps prayer is the joining together of these faces. It could be that prayer so completely wraps us in pure love. Prayer is the action of a grateful heart, no matter the circumstance.

The ups and downs of life will continue to ride on our lives whether we pray or not. For as long as Christ lives in us, we become that love.