Prayer

When Rabbi Harold S. Kushner died last month my mind went back some 40 years to the publication of his book, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”. It remains, to me, one of the very best books ever written on the subject of human suffering and how we think about God. Rabbi Kushner spoke from experience, he wrote honestly and compassionately. His son died of progeria shortly after his 14th birthday. I heartily recommend his book for anyone dealing with grief and the unfairness that so often accompanies life.

I’ve known folks who believed in the efficacy of prayer even for such mundane issues as getting a good parking place. I’ve also known people who reject prayer as being useless.

Recently a friend told me of a close relative who had over the past couple of years experienced repeated loss of close family members none of whom had reached an age where grief is at least somewhat assuaged because they had lived a good long life. I’m sure many prayers were lifted up on their behalf but were not, seemingly, answered. Then, the next day, in Great Falls I saw a bumper sticker extolling the value of prayer as our defense against evil.

It’s easy to simply choose up theological sides and declare one right and one wrong. It’s much more difficult to understand there is a meeting ground between declaring prayer as all powerful and declaring it to be useless.

Rabbi Kushner talked about God being the source of comfort, compassion, and strength which enables us to respond appropriately to suffering but does not assume God to be responsible for the unfair consequences of life. His approach makes sense to me personally but, even those who reject his thinking, can still turn to prayer in times of suffering.

Prayer, soul deep prayer, is more than an appeal to an omnipotent God who could intervene in the inescapable consequences of the slings and arrows of life. We can pray earnestly but God isn’t going to prevent an accident if we refuse to fix bad brakes on our car. If someone takes an overdose of drugs there will be inevitable consequences regardless of our prayers.

We direct our prayers to God, by whatever name we chose, but our prayers also have an immediate impact on ourselves. We are reminded that we are not all powerful, that somethings are beyond our control, and comfort and compassion may be found outside ourselves.

The vast majority of the evil in this world is the direct result of human behavior, our own and others. Prayer, at its best, reminds us each that we are at our best when we choose to act kindly, even to those we may feel don’t deserve it. We are at our best when we choose to be loving, when we “do unto others…”.

There are folks with whom we may disagree vehemently on many things but prayer reminds us we should be kind and loving regardless. Yes, prayer works.