Prayer’s Labyrinth

I received a call today from a friend who asked my wife and me to pray for her family. To say that they are walking in the valley of shadows would be an understatement. I promised that we would be praying for the family and asked her to keep us updated and to let us know if we can do anything of a hands-on nature.

Then on the way home, I passed a state trooper headed in the opposite direction. He must have been doing 80mph in a 40 mph zone, lights and siren going. Right behind him were two ambulances, flashing and wooping with equal dynamic presence. I crossed myself reflexively, then said a quick prayer as I drove. The prayer was something like this:

Father, please be with whoever those police and ambulances are headed to. Be merciful and give skill to the medical folks.

As the miles unspooled behind me, I thought about the emergency vehicles, and also about our friend who had called earlier to notify us of a terrible family situation and to ask for our prayers. My thoughts led me into a maze of speculation and sincere questions about the nature of what I do when I offer prayers, especially on behalf of other people.

If I promise someone I’ll pray for her and I get distracted and forget, and if something worse befalls that person, is the second bad thing my fault? Am I culpable in some way in God’s eyes? And if I pray for a person and God doesn’t answer in the way that I and the subject of the prayer would like, is this a form of rebuke from God? Does God’s action(s) in a matter depend in any way on a prayer offered by an interested party? Does the cumulative number and/or intensity of prayers in a given matter carry any weight with God? Is the outcome of a prayed-for situation in any way already determined? Does God ever change His course of action in the middle of it, based on someone’s prayers?

I no longer believe in a completely Omni-God (potent,niscient,present), so I also have to ask, does God ever have regrets? I know the old King James Bible talks about God “repenting” of things, but is this figurative, anthropomorphic language to help finite human minds understand, or does it mean that He really repents of certain things?

I thought some more on this tonight while watching the recalcitrant Jinx chase cows down in the valley. I shouted at him and called him and gestured ferociously to him, but he only stopped his antics and returned to me when he was good and ready. And I had the thought, “I sure hope no one shoots him, but he sure does make me laugh sometimes.”

I would not be at all surprised if God said such things about me to some of His friends.

But I am praying for our friend who called and for her family. And I am praying for whoever needed the ambulances and police officers.

~ S.K. Orr