Our Lifeline Home

Prayer. It’s a scary thing. Or at the very least, a little uncomfortable. One of those things that everyone used to do but nobody—or at least, a large majority—never really does anymore. 

Maybe it’s just not you. You’re content with your lifestyle the way it is and you see no point in changing it. You certainly don’t feel the need to add something that you find uncomfortable and pointless. 

Fair enough. To go from a life without much if any religion to one suddenly invoking Divine Intervention is not exactly easy—or even normal. After all, any significant change in lifestyle—whether it’s learning to eat healthy, exercise regularly, or reigning in our temper—is going to take more than a little effort. And yet despite every huff and puff along the way, every mountain has a view—and once we reach that view, it was worth every step to get there.

Now wait a second. If praying is such a good thing, why do we so often not get what we ask for?

The truth is that sometimes we do. In fact, according to a Monsignor that I know, a study came out involving two groups of hospital patients. One group apparently had people praying for them; the other group did not. Remarkably, it turned out that the patients who did have someone praying for them ended up with significantly improved health compared to the group who did not. 

So sometimes it works. But it doesn’t always. Maybe someone in the family is very sick. Perhaps they have cancer. Maybe your best friend started doing drugs. Or you really need to sell the house. And you pray and pray and nothing seems to happen. Why isn’t it working? 

It’s hard to know why God chooses to answer some prayers directly and then not seem to answer others. Perhaps (according to last week’s post) there’s a good reason for not getting what we want. But then again, is prayer really supposed to be for getting what we want? Or even getting what we need? What could we possibly need more than a healthy family? Or a college degree? Or just a good life?  

Even Mother Teresa needed to come to her own understanding on the subject. One of her quotes reads something like this: “I used to think that prayer changes things. Then I learned that prayer changes us and we change things.” 

So, perhaps prayer does change some things. But more importantly, it changes us. 

Jean Valjean also has a prayer. In a song now made famous among Broadway musicals, he asks God to spare the life of his daughter’s lover, Marius: 

“God on high/Hear my prayer

In my need/You have always been there . . .

If I die/Let me die

Let him live/Bring him home

Bring him Home.”

The prayer is reverent and earnest. And though Marius is spared from immediate death, he is mortally wounded at the battle the following morning. Meanwhile Valjean, still trusting that God will “Bring him home,” lifts Marius onto his back and carries the young man to safety.

God did save Marius. Perhaps not the way Valjean hoped Marius would be saved—without extra effort, additional worry, or the added obstacle of running into his arch-enemy Javert. But where prayer failed to grant Marius perfect safety, it did succeed in granting Valjean the grace and courage to carry out his initial petition.

So, in the end, the purpose of prayer never was to get us what we want—or even what we think we need. The purpose of prayer is to improve ourselves—so that we can help change the world.

Or, in the words of Monsignor: Prayer is not our lifeline to good health. It’s our lifeline to God.

We only have to say the word.