i don't think about it much anymore because it's not a scheduled activity that i feel compelled to do. in speaking with my father-in-law this weekend, i was reminded of how praying to God sounds quite odd to people outside of the religious community. i don't think i really ever understood it. i remember questioning a teacher who prayed, "Lord, if it be your will..." why he even bothered. If it's his will, it's going to happen. i asked my father-in-law that. his response that God uses us to complete his will. ...pause and think...
i can see how God puts me in a situation and i help and therefore carry out his plan (i understand i'm making that assumption that he has a pre-determined plan), but i still don't get the prayer issue. so God is waiting for me to ask him to do something and then he'll do it? i guess there are some parental parallels i can see there. i may choose not to help my child until they ask knowing that if the help isn't wanted, it may not be received. i also may delay help thinking the child needs to learn on his/her own. but i don't see prayer that way. maybe that's the problem. i think most prayer is a gimme, gimme type deal. i want, you can give, please do so quickly. in the parent-child example above, it's more of a, i'm done, please help rather than my daily list of wants. i wonder how God wants us to pray. i know the prayer in the bible "our father, who are in heaven, hallowed be thy name. thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive out debtors. and lead us not into tempatation but deliver us from evil. for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. amen." i guess that does bring up the "will" issue again. why am i praying that his will be done. isn't this all his will? i guess a literalist would say that sin isn't his will, but that just seems ridiculous to me. i mean if he's omniscient, he has control over sin. if he's perfect, how can he have anything to do with sin. if he's the creator of all, then he created sin. that, or he's not all powerful and i don't say that to be disrepectful, maybe there are two warring factions over us - evil and good and maybe God is not in control of evil. maybe cain and able are still. good doesn't always win. God doesn't always win. at least not by what we see here on earth. but back to prayer. if i'm to have a relationship with someone, i should communicate with him/her. that doesn't really happen with God. that's part of the crazy sounding stuff. it's not really a communication issue. it's more of a therapist relationship. i purge, he listens. i beg, sometimes i may get. i'm not making any sense. i think my point is that religion seems to warp prayer...surprise, surprise! they warp most things. turn it into something that benefits religion and traps the little guy. prayer has turned into a right, a perceived power of the religious to benefit who they see fit. problem is it's not reliable. for all the talk about God answers prayer, there seems to be an awful lot of death, sickness and pain in the world. and maybe that's not God's problem. who sais the part of the bible that espouses God answering prayer is correct. if he's got the bigger picture in focus, he's going to do what's best for the whole. right? maybe i'm speaking to much from a human perspective, but that's all i've got. maybe we should all just take a step back and thank him for every day we have. funny...what then do i do with the bad? what about the days when something horrible, something un-justifiable happens? i can't thank him for that. why would you? is it even his fault? maybe i shouldn't look at him as the fixer of all. maybe he's not omnipotent. maybe he's a flawed inventor just like us. God, if you're real, i mean you no disrespect. just trying to figure this out. i think i need to go down that path for a while. why do i need, why does humanity need a perfect saviour? why does God have to be perfection? why can't he have flaws? why does he have to be able to read my mind?
