Our Father, art thou listening?

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

This quote has been said by more people, in more places around the world, than almost any other. It is, of course, the opening line of the Lord's prayer - the most familiar prayer of the Christian tradition. Jesus teaches his disciples this prayer in the sixth chapter of Matthew. However, Jesus isn't the first person in history to pray or to formalize a prayer. In the Hebrew bible every great patriarch and matriarch regularly practices prayer. And yet, even thousands of years before the Judeo-Christian tradition, humans were offering prayers to the gods. 

It would appear that prayer meets an intrinsic human need. It arises in us during times of suffering and joy. Prayer crosses every constructed boundary wether racial, political, economic, or religious. People of all ages and all nationalities pray. Some pray in temples, others in cubicles.

Catholics light candles...

Nepalese Buddhists spin wheels...

Sufi whirling dervishes spin.... 

It's all prayer. 

One thing we know for sure -as Christians-, is that prayer is a must! Jesus did it. And if Jesus praying wasn't a clear enough indicator that we should also pray, in 1Thessalonians 5: 17 Paul tells us to "Pray without ceasing." 

“If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet," says author Phillip Yancey, "then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge.”

But what is prayer exactly? What does it accomplish, and why should we do it?

Like most of our other values, we can always look to the media for examples.  In songs, prayer can sometimes sound romantic: 

"When you call my name, it's like a little prayer..."

- Madonna 

"Maria... say it soft and it's almost like praying."

- West Side Story

"Each morning I wake up, before I put on my makeup, I say a little prayer for you!"

- Donna Summer

Movies have shown us another side of prayer - revenge. From basketball finals to fox hole prayers, characters are always asking the divine to be on their side. My favorite example of this comes from the movie "We Were Soldiers". In this scene Mel Gibson, as Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore, has pulled aside his 2nd Lieutenant to pray before they fly off to Vietnam to fight 'Charlie' : 

"Our Father in Heaven, before we go into battle, every soldier among us will approach you each in his own way. Our enemies too, according to their own understanding, will ask for protection and for victory. And so, we bow before your infinite wisdom. We offer our prayers as best we can... Amen. Oh, yes, and one more thing dear Lord, about our enemies, ignore their heathen prayers and help us blow those little bastards straight to Hell. Amen."

In all honesty, I've said prayers that encompass both of these examples. Ultimately, growing up we learn prayer is when you ask God for something you want. The rest as they say is up to God. It's as if prayer is the preverbal  fishing pole: we cast out our line, sit back, and wait for something to happen.

Can I just say I really like this fishing example. Because prayer and fishing, are both things I really don't like to do. They both require patience, and faith in things unseen. Each activity progresses nearly the same way: Silent, slightly shaky and nearly always ends with an expletive. In fact, the only bonus prayer has over fishing for me is that it involves less worm guts. 

I think Phillip Yancey, whom I quoted earlier, describes the actual practice of prayer most accurately; 

"Like all good things, prayer requires some discipline. Yet I believe that life with God should seem more like friendship than duty. Prayer includes moments of ecstasy and also dullness, mindless distraction and acute concentration, flashes of joy and bouts of irritation. In other words, prayer has features in common with all relationships that matter."

Prayer is a relationship, which is why I'm convinced most of us don't like it. It's like comedian Christian Finnegan says, "Relationships are like yard sales. From far away they look like a lot of fun. But up close you realize it's just a bunch of shit you don't need." 

Relationships require effort, because they deal with the desires of two people trying to accommodate one another. In relationships, the answers are never black and white. For me, prayer is still worth the effort. Merely offering up my thankyous and concerns liberates me from carrying them all by myself. Instead, I put them in the trustworthy hands of God to do with them what She will. Then, it's my turn to listen and obey. 

Ironically enough, the greatest bit of wisdom I've ever heard about prayer, comes from the movie "Evan Almighty".  Morgan Freeman, as God (who else), sits down with Evan's wife to explain something about how God answers prayers:

"Let me ask you something. If one prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage, or does he give them opportunities to be courageous? If one prayed for their family to be closer, you think God zaps them with warm, fuzzy feelings? Or does he give

them opportunities to love each other?"