Another lingering reflection, this time on a recent post on prayer:
There are dynamics involved with prayer.
It often takes a while to learn (practice) what those dynamics really are — especially against the backdrop that so many who have grown-up familiar with prayer often end up reporting they have to deal with.
I suspect that one of the primary crash-points has to do with the dynamic of leverage. There is a sense in which prayer has often been experienced primarily in the context of when something is needed. It also includes the dynamic of when something is wanted. And perhaps, because of that, it can end up for many being primarily about something like leverage. When this happens, it seems to become something that inevitably falls short of being self-sustaining.
Perhaps this is because it is perceived that we mostly pray when there is something that we want or need and don’t know how to make happen with just our own resources. We may pray, for example, for a health condition we or someone we love is struggling with. We really want the situation resolved, but we don't know how to make it happen — so, we pray. But, because we may be praying primarily out of self-interest, and particularly with the goal of leverage, we are also aware of something innately duplicitous about our 'prayer' efforts. We tend to pray when we need something...or just want something.
Against such a back-drop, we can find it difficult to sustain our prayers, when they feel largely ineffective.
What often challenges this dynamic is when there is pain or suffering of one kind another involved and what we want is more than just something that would make our lives easier or better. Something that relates to the quality of life we are not experiencing or that someone that we care about is dealing with. Here again we are prompted to pray when it’s more obvious that our resources cannot do much about relieving the pain or suffering involved in our situation — so we ask (even beg) for intervention or help of some kind. Even in these types of situations, we recognize that we're moderating our prayer based on the its perceived efficacy. So, if it doesn’t appear to be working or it has little perceivable effect, then we’re less inclined to pray (changing only when our sense of desperation does).
I’m not suggesting efficacy or leverage or anything related to asking for help, assistance, or flat-out intervention, in the dynamics of prayer, is wrong...
...finish here.
