Seriously, what IS prayer?

Given what my family has recently gone through, I have done a lot of praying.

Now, that isn't to say I don't pray everyday; I do!  But during the time of my father's illness, I prayed more than I usually did.  Heck, I think some days I was in nothing BUT prayer, just to get through the day!

Now that my father has passed, and things are "relatively" getting back to normal - or as I tell my clients: there is no normal, only average.

But back to prayer.

At first, I was praying that my Dad would be healed.  That he would gain his strength, be able to have surgery, and get to have him with us for a few more years.  Eventually, my prayers were not so....grand.  They were down to the point of just asking that my Dad have a good night sleep.

As the days passed, after Dad died...I continued to pray...but I didn't know exactly what to pray for.

After all, God knows what's going on.  I'm not telling him anything new.  I'm not giving him any information that he isn't privy to.

Given this, I reverted back to what I do in real times of stress and worry: I pray the prayer Jesus taught us.

"Our Father, who art in heaven..."

You know the rest.

I figure, if Jesus said to pray it - there must be a reason!

But what is that reason?

What is the reason for prayer in the first place?

I know we are supposed to - but why?  Because God wants to hear a bunch of us complain about our lives and ask for help?

I hope not!

I'm sure he'll hear any prayer that we offer to him, but is that truly the purpose?

According to the words of the Lord's prayer that doesn't seem to be the case.

I have heard other teachers say that the Lord's prayer isn't so much a word-by-word prayer we should say, but a guide to prayer.

I believe this to be true - however, I don't see a problem with the word-by-word part.  If it was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for me! And it usually is.

But what is the breakdown of the prayer?  How is it a guide?

I don't exactly know, I have forgotten the sermons I listened to that spoke about it, but I have some ideas of my own.

In the next post I'll take a look at the first part of the prayer.

"Our Father, who art in Heaven.....on earth as it is in Heaven."

If you have any ideas, or opinions or beliefs, or input on how you pray, please share!

Religion and Sci-Fi

If you are a sci-fi (even horror) fan, you might have noticed that sometimes Sci-fi and religion seem to highlight each other - or at least, have similarities.

Why?

Well, if you are interested, there's a great interview, regarding the book Religion and Science Fiction can be found HERE!

I highly recommend reading the interview.  Myself, I will be on the hunt for the book!

God vs. Disease

Last post I looked at the challenge: why doesn't God grow back limbs?

If you would like to read it, it's right below this one!

In this post, I will dive into the world of diseases.

Unlike the last post, this one is very personal...my father passed away in September of mesothelioma.

Did I pray he would be healed?  Yes.
Did I pray for a miracle?  You bet.
Then why didn't God answer?  Good question.

In short: I don't know.

But, I'm not here to provide a short answer.  I'm not here to provide ANY answer, because, like I said, I don't know.

However, I can give a few opinions and thoughts...so that's what I'll do.

When we ask the questions: why didn't God heal (insert name here)?  We are really asking this:  How come other people get healed but I don't? Or how come bad people get healed and my Dad didn't?

See, we are really asking why one thing (us, or our loved one got healed) didn't happen over another (someone ELSE getting healed).

For some reason, WE think we know who SHOULD and SHOULDN'T be healed.  In a way, by asking such a question we are making ourselves better judges than God.

But let's back up.

Some days I am jealous of the folks in the Bible.  They seem to have all these miracles, and conversations with God and Jesus, and well....crap, I can completely understand their faith in that context!

That's about all I'm jealous of, though.

Now, I like camping, and roughing it from time to time, but I doubt my cushioned butt would last very long back in those days.

That and I don't speak ANY of the languages that were prominent then...so, that would be an issue too.

Today, though, to see a miracle is...well, a MIRACLE!

Some folks claim to have seen one, or two...For me, like a ghost - I have never seen a miracle.  At least on par with healings and such.

So now we can come back to our question: why do some people see and get miracles and other people do not?

I wish I knew.

That's faith.

Faith is, in part, knowing that why we DON'T know, there IS a reason.

Faith to know, that in spite of never seeing a miracle or experiencing a miracle...I shall not be jealous of those who have.

For one - like the events of our daily lives, there is much going on that we don't know that ends up effecting our day...like the Butterfly Effect.  Someones spilled coffee on their way out the door to work, leads to them rear-ending us on their way home from work.  In between those two events, numerous, perhaps COUNTLESS events take place.

Like the bumper sticker says: Shit Happens.

How does this relate to diseases?

After all, my spilled coffee didn't lead my Dad to dying from mesothelioma.

No, but asbestos did.

Somewhere along the line, my Dad was exposed to enough asbestos to eventually take his life.  This is such a variable in his life, we can't even pinpoint where or how...and to even continue to try is fruitless, and a waste of time.

But why didn't God heal him?

Like in the real world, in the spiritual world there is more going on that we know of.

Too out there for you?

Huh, you accept God, but not other spiritual entities?  Even Jesus believed in them...if they were real enough for him...I rest my case.

Did Satan cause my Dad to die?

No, life did.  Life as we know know it, that is...not how it's supposed to be.

This is NOT the world God created...we messed it up.  And without going into a rant about the fall, we'll just have to agree - the fall was NOT a good thing.

Sin, evil, you name it abounds! (for now)

The "bad" that we see happen is only the harvest that we have sown...it's the fruit of our labor.  Now, certainly we can't all take "blame" for diseases, but we certainly can take enough blame to go around.  Not every disease is just a random even - there are causes.  Smoking can give you lung cancer - so if you smoke (like I did) you run that risk...can we really blame anyone/anything else?

And can we really get mad at God for not healing us or a loved one then?

And what does it say that we are mad at God because he "failed" to heal us in THIS life, while promising a better one in the NEXT.

Should we wish for death?  Of course not, and to think it is missing the point...

What about my Dad...wasn't he a victim?

Maybe he was, maybe he was completely innocent and did nothing to "deserve" his illness.

What does that mean?

It's only a reflection of the world we have created.  Fairness doesn't inherently exist.

Shit happens. (sorry Mom!)

If my faith then tells me that my father is with my Father...what does it say about me if I were to be angry that my Dad is gone?

Honestly,  that I'm selfish.

I miss my Dad, more than I can express.  But if given the chance, would I "make" my Dad come back to live with me, in this world, rather than be with God?

How selfish is that!?

I know my Dad loves me, and I will see him again WITH GOD.  But to get mad at God for not healing my Dad when there is so much more going on here and in the spiritual world - it just goes to show how short sighted I am.

While I hesitate to say it was God's will and God had a reason to take my Dad the way he did, I do know one thing:  God's will CAN come out of it.

Having faith in God isn't that he will show up and rescue us at the last minute, or that he will stop the tide of trouble...but that if we truly have faith IN HIM that we will get through it, and good CAN and WILL come out of it.

It's not what happens to us in life that matters, it's how we act AFTER.

We will experience all the world has to offer, even us Christians - it offered Jesus no less.  But what matters, what counts, is what do we do when it does...

My Dad is gone...from here.

I can't call him.  I can't hug him.  I can't work on the house with him....

But I can love him.
I can still learn from him.
I can talked to him.

I can still feel him.

And while I still feel the pain of his death...I can't help but think of other people, other boys who grew to be men that didn't have a father.  Especially a father like mine.

For 34 years I was blessed to be protected, loved, cherished, sacrificed for, by this man...in a way, how dare I ask for more, or be mad that it "wasn't enough" when there are far more out there who never HAD or will HAVE what I did...

And I think Dad would remind me of that, if I ever got to selfish.

So why didn't God heal my Dad?

I don't know.

But I do know this: It's okay that I don't.