Comments on: On Prayer

By: Nazan Yar

Nazan Yar — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:16:00 +0000

I’ll have to remember that one Mr. Deitrich.

By: Ang

Ang — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 03:09:03 +0000

Ahem…Andy…pretty sure you got bigger and stronger than yer mom but the mom is ALWAYS smarter, case in point…making you do your own laundry. lol

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:23:30 +0000

I remember hearing “I’m bigger than you, stronger than you, and smarter than you” a lot from my mom. Then one day it wasn’t true so she kept me in line by making me do my own laundry.

By: Bianca :)

Bianca :) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 06:30:01 +0000

Dear Jane and Andy:

Hello, I hope that this note finds you well.
I just wanted to share a few thoughts brought about by your entry today.

I’m not a devout Christian nor am I well-versed in the Bible, but I’d like to think that Prayer works.

When we pray as a community (regardless of where we are at the moment) we generate a force (from my mind to yours through Him) that helps the universe (?) align with us to attain our needs. Someone told me a while back that if even just two or three were gathered in Jesus’ name he would be among them. I guess it also a means for us to ‘let go and let God’ when something is kind of too out of control for you to solve/resolve on your own. On a personal note, it’s what I can do for now since I’m living on the other side of the world from your family (Asia) so I hope that it helps a bit.

The religious words that I find sanity in are…

“Ask and you shall receive; whatever you need.”
I’m not sure if that’s really all in the Book, but they were the words of a song that struck me the most during a retreat I took last December. They reminded me that sometimes I’m too wrapped up in my level of discernment/struggle to realize that it’s ok to approach someone on the sidelines for help.

“And this, too, shall pass.”
Trivia (Sorry): I’ve seen “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (Julia Roberts) six times in the theater (with different people) and then a few more times on cable. I thought that I knew the movie from beginning to end until one day, when nothing seemed to go well, a friend told me to remember the scene in the hotel hallway where Jules shared a cigarette with a waiter (a then unknown Paul Giamatti) who told her that simple phrase. Yes, I couldn’t remember the scene at the time either.
Those few words though have been a mantra to get through those rock-bottom moments. No where to go but up, right?

Anyway, thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I want you both to know that your daily updates inspire me to be better with and to make the most of the resources that God has given me + you’re all always in my prayers.

Keep smiling and God bless!

By: Dana

Dana — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 04:04:45 +0000

Our pastor just preached about prayer and communion this past Sunday. He quoted the writer Philip Yancey who asked, “Does prayer change God, or does prayer change me?” I think that prayer changes us. It makes us become more dependent on God and not try to rely on ourselves. Just like the Isrealites in the desert who were instructed to only gather enough manna for one day. They had to have faith and trust that the next day and the next and the next and every day after that, God would send them enough manna to sustain them. I believe that through prayer, God gives us the strength we need to get through one day, but then we have to go right back to His throne the next day for more. God wants to have a relationship with us and He wants us to trust Him.

My dad had heart bypass surgery a little over a year ago. We were lucky that he went to the doctor right away after having a chest pain, and the clots were found early. He was actually able to wait for almost a year to have surgery, while the doctors monitored the clots and treated them medically, so he could accumulate enough sick time and vacation time for his recovery. During that year, I prayed every day that God would heal him so that he wouldn’t need surgery, but that didn’t happen. I talked to my dad about it, and he had a very different take on it: Twenty years ago, he probably would have had a heart attack and died. He believed that God did perform a miracle – in the technology and the skill of the doctors that made the surgery a success. Vanderbilt has a cath lab in their OR, so the surgeon actually showed us before and after pictures of the blood flow in his heart. Not only that, the doctors had discovered earlier that his body had grown a vein to bypass a clot, but that vein was getting blocked as well. Who else but God could have grown my dad another vein??

I’ve always loved the Garth Brooks song “Unanswered Prayers” but I’ve come to learn that God always does answer prayers – sometimes He just answers with a “No” or “Wait.” There have been two times in my life when I have wanted something really badly and prayed so hard to get it, but God said no both times. Instead, I ended up getting my last choice, but both times it ended up being an amazing experience. Looking back on them, I can see now how God was using those experiences to shape me and the path for my life. Of course, at the time, I couldn’t see that and was heartbroken. Hindsight really is 20-20.

So, I believe that prayer works, and I join in with you in praying for healing for Ramona, but more so with you in praying that God’s will be done. I know that God has a purpose for her life, just as He has one for all of us, we just don’t always get to know right away, if ever, what that purpose is.

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 03:38:02 +0000

Definitely no pony…the first thought that pops into mind is all the extra poop you’d have to scoop!

Parenting has been such an eye opener for me, especially in my relationship with God. I mean, today, Hana asked me for a thousand different things, and I probably said no to about 990 of them. Some things she really wanted, and asked for them all day long. Some things she didn’t even really want, but thought she did at the time. She always followed my negative answers with “why?” Sometimes I gave her an explanation, even if it was over her head. Sometimes, I just said “no”. Still, other times, I said, “sure”, or “yes, but not right now, please be patient.” So, anyway, even though it seems as if she’s always asking for something, I would never want her to not ask me, to stop communicating with me.

If only I could accept God’s answers, explanation or not, with the same faith and trust that Hana has in me, well, at least at this time in her life, anyway.

I know it’s not this simple, but I hope there’s some encouragement from it. Will continue to pray!!

By: Alisa

Alisa — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 03:01:52 +0000

Hey Jane, I’ll brave the blog format. :) When I read your post earlier today, I had two thoughts. One I emailed you about yesterday: Prayer seems ‘tricky’ to me because we know that God is able, but we don’t know what God will ultimately do and this includes the timing. And thus we’re not quite entirely sure how far to hope…we know he can, so we could get our hopes up, but we know he might not, so we ought to be cautious or ‘prudent’. This is the balancing act I find myself in at times (does anyone else feel this tension?).

Then I turned my thoughts to Scripture. I wondered if there was an example of a Biblical character praying, etc. Now there are tons of examples, I’m sure, but the one that came to mind right away was the story of David praying after his first son by Bathsheba became ill (2 Samuel 12). Now the circumstances were totally different, but David’s response is interesting. “David pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted…” in such a severe way that his servants were afraid to tell him when the child died. When he heard the news, he rose, washed and worshiped, and then ate. The servants questioned his behavior and he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” Now Jane, I’m nervous sharing this particular Scripture for obvious reasons, but I think how David responded to the situation is telling. He knew God. And he prayed, seriously, fervently. He didn’t know what the outcome would be, but he definitely asked up to the moment of answer.

It’s a mystery, God is a mystery. Mystery, unknowing, is tough; I’d rather know! But, God invites us to pray, and I suspect the result if we have a soft heart is always good, whether he answers in the way we initially wish him to, or if he gently whispers his thoughts into our minds and draws us alongside his will as you so beautifully suggest. Love to you.

By: Sue

Sue — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 02:44:53 +0000

Dear Jane, Dear Andy,

Years ago, on a day when I was feeling particularly challenged by & frustrated with our 3 little boys, I called their father at work in hopes of receiving a little sympathy. Perhaps I did, but what I remember receiving is this exhortation: “You are bigger than they are, stronger than they are & smarter than they are”.

Going to God in prayer, for me, means going to the One Who is Bigger, Stronger & Smarter than I am. It is a way to sort through my thoughts & feelings & to get down to basics. And one of my most basic prayers is always “HELP”!

I believe that God hears our prayers of “HELP!” for Ramona. It is a priviledge to go to The One Who is Able with my petitions for her health & her healing as well as for your health, strength & peace. I look forward to many positive outcomes to our prayers.

Kiss the babies for me!

By: Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 23:19:07 +0000

Hi Jane,
When I give my testimony I often say that going through the experience of Drew’s diagnosis and open heart surgery at one week old brought me closer to God. It also changed the way that I pray. I no longer pray for a specific outcome or result (ok, sometimes I do!), but I pray for the courage and strength to get through every situation I may face. And I find that God does answer that prayer. When we had Drew in the hospital people would say “you’re so strong” and “I could never handle a situation like yours” and to be honest, I probably would have said the same thing to someone else. I can’t explain how we got through it except by the grace of God.

By: Carol

Carol — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:47:37 +0000

Jane,
There have been two or three times in my life when it seemed desperately important that God listen to my prayers and that the outcome be that someone that I loved live. In one case, someone who was clearly a person who made the world a better place and gave from his heart to help those in need suffered great pain and died a miserable death in spite of the prayers of many who loved him. In the other cases, my mother, sister and baby neice survived traumatic circumstances to live years longer and tell the story of that terrible time. However, when I was praying the first time so fervently, I became conscious of how un-godlike my naive idea of prayer and how it works seemed to be. If someone, like Ramona is ill, and lots and lots of people pray for her, don’t we all feel just a little bit better, like maybe one of us might have an answered prayer favor coming to us, so maybe we can get our wish granted? But what about all the babies who have no one who even cares if they live or die, or even wants to hold them? Certainly God would not neglect one of them in favor of a much-loved child like Ramona. I cannot imagine a God who would choose one over the other. So where does that leave me and my prayers? For a number of years, it left me angry and not praying, and then, slowly, I realized that prayer, for me, serves as a way to center myself, to look inside myself and find what I can bring to the world to make a positive difference to someone – maybe not Ramona, but someone else. Kind of a pay it forward idea. But more importantly, I gave up the idea of a punishing or a rewarding God and replaced it with an image of a nurturing God, hence the “she” reference, because assigning a gender to God seems so limiting. I think that whyen good things happen it i not necessarily because we have made good choices or we have been good people. Certainly those behaviors influence the cosmos, but sometimes, like with Ramona, terribly sad and difficult things happen to people who are good and loving and do all they can to be honest and caring in an unjust world. By the same logic, when trouble comes, it does not mean that we earned it, or that it is part of a grand scheme that makes the world a better place. If Ramona dies, I do not believe that the world will be better off or that your family will serve some greater purpose than you would with her. I do believe, however, that God is with us always, and that God’s presence is manifest to you through all of these people who are praying and caring for you and your family. I also believe that prayer does make a difference, something beyond the understanding, peace, clarity, comfort and resolve that we come to through prayer. I can’t figure out how and why it should, but as Andy says, if you don’t know, and it’s this important, why not go for it? I think, at the very least, that prayer is keeping us all focused on Ramona, and that she can feel it in some way and that it gives her the strength and courage to heal herself.

I am not a Bible reader or one who pursues theological study, just one who continues to reflect and learn from her own spiritual journey.

Love,
Carol