| ANNE WILLIAMSON |
The truth of this world is sad and unjust situations are happening all the time, every second. Sometimes I feel very removed from them - and honestly, it is necessary to; we cannot sit in pain perpetually - but sometimes, I feel them deeply. Whether Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, the ground offensive in Gaza, immigrant children suffering on the U.S. border, a Facebook post of both mother and child fighting cancer, our broken prison system, or a close friend in pain, this has been a week for feeling it.
When this happens, what do we do? How are we to respond? LEARN, LOVE, LISTEN...
In attempting to answer this question, I returned to one of my favorite books: Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki's In God's Presence. It's a book on prayer - what it is for and how it might work. In one chapter she explores intercessory prayer, or simply, prayers for others. I offer you pieces of her words here:
"...Consider that since God relates to each aspect of creation in all of creation's varied time frames, then no matter how remote two persons may be from each other, there is a sense in which they 'meet' in God (p44-45)....
Praying for another's well-being allows God to weave us into that other's well-being. In this manner we become part of those for whom we pray, and they become part of us (p. 47)....
All things relate to all other things. In this interdependent world, everything that exists experiences to some degree the effects of everything else. We are so constituted that very, very little of all this relationality makes it to our conscious awareness. But we are connected, nonetheless; it is sure. Praying lifts these loose connections to our conscious awareness in the context of God's presence (p.47)....
[Because] God works with the world as it is. Quite simply, prayer changes the 'isness' of the world. A world where there is this specific praying going on is not the same as a world where this praying is not going on. And the God who is always working with the world takes every opportunity within the world to influence it for its own good. For this reason, I am convinced that it is God's own self who prompts us to pray, and that when God needs resources for any particular situation, God will give an impulse toward prayer to those open to such an impulse so that their praying may make a difference to what God can give in yet another place (p. 49)....
By our active caring, exercised through our prayers, have we not to some degree changed the context? Though we are at a distance, though we are relatively insignificant in the politics and hatreds of amassed power, though we have no control over foreign powers, yet we are not helpless (p. 50)....
We are not helpless. Prayer may feel like a small, insignificant act, but in fact, it is quite powerful. It energetically changes the shape of what's possible for those we pray, and it may do much more. Keep listening.
Out of what's stirring in you, set an intention for this coming week. How are you feeling pulled to respond in love?
My suggestion: Sit down, be still and open your heart to the world. Wait for the names and faces to come, and they will... friends, family, acquaintances, strangers. Don't worry about saying the "right" words, just see their faces and hold them in love and well-being. Then...
Once again, Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki:
"Even though were are at a distance, our prayers change what is possible. For God is never at a distance. A relational God, then, depends upon our prayers. But in a world of interdependence, we must recognize that God may use us in answer to our prayers. When we offer ourselves to God through prayers of intercession, whether for strangers we have never met in a distant country, for acquaintances, or for those we know more intimately, we do so realizing that God works through the world for the world. Through prayer, we open ourselves to conformity with God's great will. And if God touches us at every moment in our lives with directive energy, and if our will joins God's will in a care toward a particular personal or social situation for well-being, then there is no guarantee that God will not use us to bring about some aspect of that well-being. We risk being used by God as answers to our own prayers" (p. 50).
What do you hear? How might God be asking you to be an answer to the prayers you've prayed? Don't know yet? That's okay; commit to being open and keep listening. Each one of us can be part of the world's healing. Amen/May it be so!