Good morning…
As if panning for valuable chunks of gold, I sift through a New York Times opinion piece to discover some very important nuggets. Author Anne Lamott, wise and sassy, provokes the potential of authentic prayer.
- “Prayer connects us umbilically to a spirit both outside and within us, who hears and answers.”
- “Prayer says… ‘I am tiny, helpless, needy, worried, but there’s nothing I can do except send my love into that which is so much bigger than me.'”
- “How do people like me who believe entirely in science and reason also believe that prayer can heal and restore? Well, I’ve seen it happen a thousand times in my own inconsequential life. God seems like a total showoff.”
- “When I pray for all the places where we see Christ crucified — Ukraine, India, the refugee camps — I see in my heart and in the newspaper that goodness draws near, through UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, volunteers, through motley old us.”
- “I pray for my family and all my sick friends that they have days of grace and healing, and I end my prayers, ‘Make me ever mindful of the needs of the poor.’ Then I put on my glasses, let the dog out to pee and start my day.”
- “It is miserable to be a hater. I pray to be more like Jesus with his crazy compassion and reckless love. …God sees beyond each person’s awfulness to each person’s needs. God loves them, as is.”
- “I lift up one of my grown Sunday school kids who is in the I.C.U. with anorexia. I beseech God to intervene, and she does, through finding my girl a great nurse later that day. (Nurses are God’s answer 35 percent of the time.) My prayer says… ‘I care about her and have no idea what to do, but to hold her in my heart and turn her over…’ And I hear what to do next — make her one of my world-famous care packages — overpriced socks, a journal, and needless to say, communion elements tailored to her: almonds and sugar-free gum. It’s love inside wrapping paper.”
- “I talk to so many people who are absolutely undone by all the miseries of the world, and I can’t do anything for them but listen, commiserate and offer to pray. I can’t turn politics around, or war, or the climate, but in listening, by opening my heart to someone in trouble, I create with them more love, less of a grippy clench in our little corner of the universe.”
- “A walk is a great prayer. To make eye contact and smile is a kind of prayer, and it changes you. Fields and woods are the kingdom. You don’t say, ‘Oh, there’s a dark-eyed junco flitting around that same old pine tree; whatever,’ or: ‘Look at those purple wildflowers. I’ve seen those a dozen times.” You are silent.“
- “At bedtime I pray again for my sick friends, and the refugees. I beg for sleep. I give thanks for the blessings of the day. I rest into the vision of the pearly moon outside my window that looks like a porthole to a bigger reality, sigh and close my tired eyes.”
Further distilling Anne’s creative expression, what does prayer really look like and what does prayer really do?
Prayer connects us umbilically to a spirit who hears and answers – sends love, heals, restores. Where we see Christ crucified — goodness draws near, offering days of grace and healing, crazy compassion and reckless love. I beseech God to intervene – and I hear what to do next. I can’t do anything but listen, commiserate and offer to pray – but in listening, by opening my heart to someone in trouble, I create with them more love. A walk is a great prayer. To make eye contact and smile is a kind of prayer. Prayer changes you. You are silent. Give thanks for the blessings of the day. Rest into the vision of the pearly moon.
…pray continually… (1 Thessalonians 5:17, NIV).
Amen.
…Sue…
