Talk to the Invisible Mind Reader in your closet
Tuesday , April 27th
Most of us have tried prayer at some point, or at least have formed opinions about what it is. Maybe it’s what you do when you really want the Canucks to win the playoffs. Or when you want to boost your chances at winning the lottery. Or maybe it would be a last resort when the treatments fail and the diagnosis does not look good.
Some think that ‘prayer’ is a good way to clear your head of stress, and switch off your brains you can do some gravity defying yoga stretch. Or maybe you think any kind of psychic communication with other beings is just for religious weirdos who shave their heads, live in caves and have no grounding in reality.
And really, who can prove that they have the corner on the ‘right way to pray’. No one else can peer into your brain to see if those brainwaves of communication are coming from a higher being or if its just the manifestation of that spicy taco you had for lunch.
Whether or not you believe in higher beings and our ability to communicate with them, the facts are that a lot of people claim that prayer not only makes them feel better and solve their problems, but that it actually changes the outcome of situations. So what, you may say. Some people believe in aliens. Let them believe it, it doesn’t mean it’s true. Culturally it’s not correct for anyone to say that what they believe applies to other people.
Back in the day, 2000 years ago, praying made you look pretty cool. The religious leaders in Israel used to pray on street corners in loud voices and this made them feel really good about themselves. (Nowadays this would have the opposite effect on your popularity, but that’s besides the point).
Then Jesus came along and messed up their party. (He did this a lot. Hence, they had him murdered.) He said “Don’t be like hypocrites who like to be seen praying in the synagogue and on the street corners, they have another thing coming.” Then he told his listeners that when they pray they should lock themselves in their closet and talk to their Daddy Who Is Unseen. Praying in a closet where no one else can see or hear you does not benefit you in any way, or even promote your religion, unless perhaps this God who you are talking to is real.
Jesus then said “Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Not many religions will tell you to pray in secret, because it doesn’t give any glory to you or to the religion. But what Jesus was probing at was that God wants a one-on-one relationship with us, like a Daddy with his kid. A lot of people when they pray drivel on endlessly and probably make God’s ear sore, and anyone else’s ear who might be nearby. But this Invisible Daddy God can also read your mind and knows what you need before you even open your mouth.
This is when Jesus gave an example prayer which had become known as the Lord’s Prayer, which covers all the basics of conversation with God without getting too wordy. This prayer is not some kind of magic formula. God isn’t some kind of cosmic vending machine that we can use to get rich and make people fall in love with us. In fact the Lord’s prayer doesn’t have a line that says “give me every inkling little whimsical desire of my heart”. It does say “give us our daily bread”. Or, give us what we need to stay alive so we can keep serving you. Which is much more humbling. Just like saying “your will be done” to a big powerful God means that we relinquish our need to try to armwrestle God into doing things the way we want it. It also talks about an uncomfortable thing called forgiveness which seems sort of an unremovable part of this relationship that God wants to have with us.
None of us has had the same experience of prayer. Some on Tuesday said they had experienced amazing coincidences in their lives which they owe to prayer. Others think that while it’s all fine and dandy for some people, talking to an invisible mind-reader in their closet isn’t their cup of tea. Nonetheless, we all had some tea and blueberry pie and made some new friends.
