Praying to God occurs regularly. Most of humanity prays at some time or another.
Sometimes we pray simply to express thanks. Or to ask for guidance. Or to verbalize
dismay. Or to plead for assistance. Or to request desired results. Or to bring healing to
another’s broken heart or ill body.
We pray, wondering if we’re being heard. We question our own motives, our own
worthiness in daring to approach Creator God with our voices.
We pray boldly, fully expecting God to come through with our every wish list item.
We pray rarely, only approaching prayer mode in times of desperation, throwing our
fate to the God we hope intervenes.
And God seems to understand all our communication styles, even the ones that seem
self-serving.
Then we do the hardest part of all: we wait.
The silence of God, especially in times of crashing dreams or disrupted lives, can be
deafening.
Yet, God of Scripture consistently reminds us: God hears, God cares, God answers.
Here’s the spiritual quagmire: the answers may or may not match our exact specifications.
Often, our prayers serve as a way to slow down our over-stimulated minds, a way to
quieten ourselves long enough to experience God in the silence. Wisdom and discernment
are resources that the Spirit offers in our better prayer times.
And sometimes, we become acutely aware that we are being invited to cooperate with
God, rather than to wait passively for a miraculous intervention. As escaped American slave
Frederick Douglass says: I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with
my legs.
So we join with the early followers of Jesus by pleading: “Teach us to pray.” God hears
that request, gently invites us into genuine conversation, and hears our deepest concerns
that can be too deep for words. What a mysterious, precious God to meet us where we are,
and to invite us to communion that transcends the frivolous.
So, shall we pray? —Virgil Fry
*In the 1980’s and 1990’s Virgil Fry was the chaplain at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston. As
of 2012 Virgil Fry was Executive Director for Lifeline Chaplaincy which includes hospitals in
Houston, Dallas, Austin, and Tarrant, Texas. Virgil was a friend of Sue Conner and ministered to
her and her first husband, Richard, who eventually passed away from cancer.