What’s prayer got to do with it?

I’ve been praying a lot lately. Which is saying something for someone who prayed a lot already.

So I have been praying a lot, a lot.

Just today, I will participate, before the end of day, in 5 prayer services online, and that doesn’t include the praying I will do off camera.

Coronavirus. Relationships. New work. New school. Are the kids doing ok? Am I doing ok? Are we going to be ok? Are the people I love ok?

It’s enough for a panic attack, or a complete shut down, or even a rant gone viral in a grocery store. Which is why I pray [among other things that keep me sane.]

But still. We are all navigating big stuff. It might just make you wonder, what does prayer have to do with any of it? Does prayer touch any of it in a way that matters? What does prayer have to do with it? With any of it?

Saint Tina of “What’s Love Got To Do With It”- I’ve had this song in my head for days now.

Sometimes I wish that prayer worked like a gum-ball machine. Prayer goes in and out pops the answer. We can easily get caught up in wishing that prayer had clearly defined and tangible responses…wouldn’t life be easier that way?

But of course, that isn’t how prayer works. In fact, that isn’t even what prayer does.

Prayer isn’t something you do to manipulate a reaction or response. Prayer isn’t an Amazon wishlist where you can leave a link for God to fulfill and ship in 2 days.

Prayer is instead something that transforms us. We are the thing that prayer “accomplishes”, and ultimately, I don’t think I would want it to be anything less than that.

What happens when I try to do God’s job.

If prayer were a wishing well or a genie lamp…how much we would limit God’s response to us. God could easily become a fulfillment center and we would get nothing more than what our minuscule imaginations could desire; what we think is best [which has an epic failure rate if you think about it].

Instead, prayer is a vehicle for transformation. It shapes us; it moves us; it makes us rather than being something that we make.

God is so much bigger than us, bigger than our desires, and bigger than what we could ever dream up for ourselves. So when you pray, listen. Listen. Listen to God. You might just be formed into who God made you to be: beautiful and blessed. And odds are, you will feel better about everything you have been carrying with you ❤️