Prayer

 Good morning, and welcome.

 I’m not sure at this point what my topic for this Thursday Thought will be.  There are so many things rattling around in my head, and none of them are settling in right now for a cohesive thought.  There’s a lot going on in the world, just as there always has been.  However, in today’s world, we are exposed to a lot more of it than we were just a few decades ago.  We get instant news, instant commentary, and instant conspiracy theories.  And those things come at us several different ways…many times now through social media and the Internet.  Television, radio, and print make up a lot of the remainder, with personal interaction making up a small part.

News organizations have reporters and photographers embedded in much of the world.  I was reading an article on the recent bombing in Iran conducted by the United States and coalition forces which killed a leader of a militant group there.  The report spoke of an Associated Press photographer in Iran who was allowed to photograph the results of the bombing.  I can’t imagine being a member of the press in a place like that.  The stress level must be about 18 on a scale of 1 to 10.

We can know much about what’s going on in China…Argentina…Australia…The Sudan…Israel…Great Britain…Russia…Canada…and any other place in the world you’d like to name, just be doing a little searching on line.  And of course, Washington DC is always in the news in some form or another, as well as various state capitals, and even sometimes the city halls of larger cities.

It can all be so overwhelming, especially when we realize that there is nothing we can do to change things.  We have no say in whether or not another bombing will take place in Iran.  We cannot in any way shape the Israel/Hamas war.  We have no access to our elected senators and representatives, and certainly we don’t have the ear of the President.  We’d be lost in Topeka trying to make our way through the jungle of state government.  And we even have difficulty contacting our city council person, county commissioner, or our mayor in any meaningful way.

I think the combination of so much news and information…most of it telling us that something bad is going on…and our inability to do anything about it in any meaningful way eats on us as well.  Our stress level goes up.  Our uneasiness increases.  We become fearful of the next thing to happen.  We become hooked on news cycles and search for news outlets that slant the news in ways that we like, so that we can better manage the stress.

We align ourselves with people and groups that appear to have answers, or at least have the ear of those who are making the decisions.  Most often, however, these people and groups have no answers, but our joining their rhetoric makes us feel better…makes us feel like we are doing something…anything to reduce the stress and fear.

And then, to cap it all off, when we drive in downtown Wichita, we see a woman bent over under a load of things she’s carrying, disheveled, dirty, and unhoused…going from who knows where to who knows where.  She is one of hundreds who have no place to call home, and countless more who are couch-surfing or rooming in with relatives or friends.

The unhoused woman is a microcosm of a society that is ill.  In addition to homelessness, drug addiction, violence, mass shootings, lack of health care, too many incarcerated, too many who are hungry, and other ailments plague us as we make our way through life and living.  These are things that we can see…that we can experience…right here at home.  And we feel helpless here, too.  There is so much violence.  So much addiction.  So much homelessness.  So much hunger.

It rapidly gets to the point that we just check out.  We become numb.  We just try to get through the day.  We ensconce ourselves in a sort of cocoon, just in order to survive.  We become depressed.  We see therapists.  We medicate ourselves, either legally or illegally.  Is it any wonder we are the way we are?

I’m not going to leave you in a state of depression, though.  Yes, the problems are real.  Yes, we have real issues in society and in the world.  It is correct also that we seemingly don’t have any control over any of this…that the world is running amuck.  However, as Christians, there is something very powerful that we can do.

In the New Testament book of James, we read this:  “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

Paul the apostle tells Timothy to “Pray for kings and others in power, so we may live quiet and peaceful lives as we worship and honor God.”

These are just two of the many places in both the Old and New Testaments where we either are instructed to pray, or find examples of people who prayed.

Prayer does two things.

First, prayer puts us in touch with someone who, unlike us, is able to do something about whatever situation about which we have a concern.  If we as Christians truly believe in an all-powerful God who continues to be living and active in His creation, our prayers connect us with that God in a powerful way.

Second, through prayer, we can reach beyond any barrier to directly affect the outcome of any given situation in the world today.  We don’t have to travel to Gaza, Iran, or China to affect some situation.  We can go there in prayer, bypassing all of the barriers that are in our way.

And I’ll give you a third point.  Prayer reduces our anxiety and calms our fears.  Prayer gives us peace and contentment, even in the world we live in today.  Prayer is the great healer.

Well, I never did get to a real topic for this Thursday Thought, so I’ll close with this:  this new year, if you don’t already do so, take even a minute or two out of every day to engage in prayer.  Reach out to the One who can do immeasurably more than we can ask or even think.

 

Blessings,