love changes everything

I feel this blog should begin with a caution. This is just my current rambling thoughts. It's not a carefully constructed theology. It's not the culmination of a lifetime of research and consideration of other people's theories. It's just some of what's going round my head this particular, so far sunny, morning. It's certainly not what I say out loud when I'm leading Sunday School.

So, I've been thinking about prayer. I'm not much of a traditional pray-er although I would say that according to my personal definition, I do pray often. It's never on my knees, head bowed, with my hands together. It often doesn't have words. But I do feel connection with what I would call (usually) God. Sometimes there are words, and the bringing to mind of people, of situations. Now, as my beliefs don't run to an interventionist God, this isn't so that I can try and convince God that something needs to change. I don't see God as a Being who alters things, but I do believe that all relationships can be transformational. So for me, the power that prayer can have is like chatting to my loving friends, in externalising my concerns, taking time to think through what I could do, or reframing how I feel, such as being reminded that I am loved.

I think we are the ones that show love, empathy, take action, and prayer can help tune us into that. I think prayer can and does change things, but not in the ways that I perhaps grew up thinking it did. I sometimes pray intensely for particular situations, but not with a view that it is my prayer that will change the situation “out there”. I can't reconcile the thought that God somehow protects some because they are prayed for, and not others. Accidents, disasters, illness, these things happen, and sometimes maybe happen less if people are being mindful/prayerful. The frequency and impact of some natural disasters, for example, could be lessened if we put our collective intelligence towards thinking well about the earth and all its peoples. But I don't think prayers protect, or cure people. My daughter stands no more chance of coming home safe and happy from her Rock and River Romp this weekend according to how hard I have prayed for her.

Telling people that I have prayed for them is something else (and not something I do all that often as most people would then think it was of the trying-to-influence-the-future type of prayer). It's one of many ways of showing people that they are important to us, that we have them in our hearts even when they're not right in front of us. There's something a bit fuzzy (as I said, this isn't my definitive view) about hope here too, living out a worldview that's not to do with controlling what happens but trusting that whatever does happen we will not be abandoned by love. Clearly the concept of prayer is massive and I'm not going to be able to explain myself fully here. But I've made a start...