The Power of Prayer

I know the despair people often feel. Darkness is an old friend of mine. I know the frustration, the anger, and the pain of a world that so often seems like it cares little for our needs or even our existence. It just seems like such a giant mess sometimes doesn't it? I spend my life trying to make myself vulnerable to the world. I spend hours and hours meditating on making my heart and soul open so that my relationships can be pulled as far as they can go. I do this because I believe absolutely that God is the very substance of those relationships, that by making connections in this world we touch the face of God. Yet how often has that heart, given to another been stepped on, used and abused? Quite often, believe me. And because of the nature of my spiritual practices, the pain that results is deep. In those moments I hear a voice telling me that God is not love, that I am not cared for, and that life doesn't matter. What do I do in those moments?

I pray. Prayer is so very powerful, my friends, when used properly. No, you won't win the lottery, and the magical power to transform the physical world on a whim will not be focused into your hands. But the power of God to inspire, to build up, to fill up with love, will. If you pray for the strength to help others, you will find yourself helped. If you pray to have wisdom, wisdom you will find. Reaching out to God in the darkness can be one of the most healing and empowering things we can ever do.

But how can we make sense of God in the midst of darkness? How are we supposed to find him? When I despair, I remember a scene from the movie RETURN TO PARADISE. There is this guy, played by Joaquin Phoenix, who is stuck in a Malaysian prison waiting for some buddies of his to turn themselves in for certain crimes so that he may be spared the death penalty. He tells one friend that he prays all the time, in prison. He says he never prayed out in the world, but now he prays all the time. He says that out in the world, where God's presence is apparent, praying makes no sense, because life is a prayer. It's like when you are singing, in the shower, your voice sounds good because it is completely isolated, because it is the only sound in the soundless room. When you pray in a godless place, you make bring God into that place, and that can be the most beautiful thing in the world.

There is some truth in Gnosticism. No, the world is not inherently evil. No, mysticism is not an end in itself. No, there is not some aristocratic truth that only certain brilliant minds and souls can perceive, with everyone else left in the dark. But what is true is that there is genuine evil in this world and it has created some dark places. There are areas that are truly godless, in the sense of being in no way in line with the will of God. Some of those places reside within us, and sometimes they dominate us. It is at least partly true that what we are called to do is bring God to a godless world, or more accurately to godless corners of the world. So when times are tough, pray. Pray like your prayer is the birthplace of God, because in some ways it is.