Lost Keys and Other Answered Prayers

One of the themes that several of us in this blog keep coming back to is prayer. Should we pray for little things, like losing our keys, which someone just wrote so nicely about? Or should we not bother God with all the trivial stuff that makes up our lives? The Bible says we should “pray without ceasing,” but does God really want to be bugged about. . . you know. . . good parking places. . . football games. . that kind of thing? Asking God for something isn’t magic, but it’s not ordinary either.

I am not actually sure how prayer really works. If God already knows our hearts, why do we need to ask? And if we all pray for a certain outcome, it surely isn’t that God is taking a poll on how things in a given situation should turn out. There is also some country song that says, “God answers all prayers, but sometimes the answer is ‘No,” which is good to remember. All I know for sure is that it DOES work, and the evidence is all around us. Just this past week, I saw my friend John, who is awaiting a heart-kidney transplant and is very sick, walk his beloved daughter down the aisle at her wedding—the embodiment of answered prayers. So I guess I’ll have to wait to learn just HOW it all works when I’m in the Kingdom, and just be faithful about it until then.

Writer Ann Lamott says that all prayer comes down to three things: “Please. Thanks. Wow!” But it’s also our way of having a personal conversation with God. What an amazing thing that is, when you really think about it! My middle son was in this weekend with two of his friends for some Greek event at UT called Roundup. We were thrilled to see him—he hadn’t been home since Christmas, and we miss him so much—but “see” was the operative word. He was so busy coming and going with his friends that he and I didn’t even get a chance to have a real conversation. I was so happy to see him, but I felt a little downhearted when he left. Perhaps our prayers are like that to God. It’s one thing to go to church and be observant, but if we don’t pray, He just “sees” us, rather than us taking the time to really talk to Him. So maybe, after all, he doesn’t mind a bit being bothered with our little, everyday concerns!