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| God is radically free, and being made in God’s image, so are we. We are free to help bring the kingdom of heaven here on earth—through prayer and action. We are free to ignore God and bring disastrous consequences to our loved ones, the whole world and ourselves. And if God is really going to honor that free will placed in us, then bad things are going to happen. So we pray. We pray believing that God does hear us and that we change and the world changes and the kingdom comes. But we know that this change is sometimes not apparent and sometimes slower and sometimes not at all what we expect. And that is what makes prayer so hard to do. So risky. Prayer is risky, so we start small. If you don’t feel like you have enough faith to cure cancer, that’s okay. Start small. Pray for someone who has a cold. Richard Foster, in his book Celebration of Discipline, suggests that we visualize Jesus placing his hands over a sick friend. Then, with the faith of child talking to a loving parent, we ask Jesus to bring healing. We can practice prayer by praying, by taking small steps many times during the day. Some people listen to and speak with God at the beginning of every waking hour. They spend just a few minutes with God. A friend of mine remembers to pray by turning her watch upside down. When she glances at her watch, she remembers to pray. Others turn off the radio in the car. Driving time becomes prayer time. Prayer is relationship with God. And like our earthly relationships, prayer has no quick formulas, no automatic guarantees. The beings involved are not robots, nor would we want that kind of relationship with God. We interact with the Creator of the universe. And the universe becomes renewed as we pray. So … taking the risk … we pray, staring small, breathing deep—having faith. God is there, with us, in our small acts of prayer. | |||||||||
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