Ineffective Pray-er...

From Morguefile

I was eating lunch at a local restaurant in Tidioute when I overheard part of a conversation that troubled my spirit - because it was, in a small part, about me, though the people wouldn't have had any way of knowing that.

Last week I was asked to pray for a "blessing of the bikes" for a dice run heading out of Tidioute on Saturday.  So I asked one of our guys who is a part of the regional Christian Motorcyclists Association for some pointers, showed up early and, at the appointed time, prayed - for the bikes to work like they were supposed to, for the road to be clear, for the bikers to pay attention and for other drivers to pay attention to them, for God's blessing to be on the riders.  That's what I can remember of it, anyway.*

I joked just before they left that I would pray for no rain, too.  And I did.  And it rained on me on the way home.  But, I thought, no big deal, they were going in a big loop around the region so this rain will probably pass (it did - don't know if it rained elsewhere on the run, though).

But what I heard today was that there was a pretty bad accident in the midst of the run... and many of the bikers gave up and went home.  The part of the conversation that I heard was a lament from one of the people at one of the last stops who was expecting to be there a few hours and waited over five hours until someone showed up...white faced and shaking.  She said she left her "stop" on the run soon after, since people had clearly given up on the run...

Now, don't get me wrong.  I don't feel responsible for the accident or anything like that.  I felt, immediately... helpless.

And it occurred to me that I don't know how to respond to the question - what happened?

What do I say to marginal or non-believers who might ask me about God's providence in the face of my clearly ineffective prayer?  I can shoulder the blame, but will they believe me?

Because there was my realization that my prayer was not a fervent, heart prayer but more of a public, casual even, "these are words to God for you" kind of prayer.  Did it matter?  Would it have made a difference?

My prayers for those involved in the accident since have been more fervent.  But I wonder...why not before?

And it brought to mind how casually we pray things like, "God, give them safety on this mission trip..." but, then, my heart is heavy thinking about this young lady and her family and her church... and that was just a "normal mission trip."  How casually we can take prayer.  It's our "last resort" and it's the cliche thing we "always say" when someone brings something up (I'll pray about it, or I'll pray for you) but do we mean it?  It's a stall tactic (point number 2 - but a good post nonetheless) for us always...

We know that the Bible says "The prayer of the righteous person is powerful and effective."  But the Bible also says we do not have because we do not ask, and when we do ask, we often ask with the wrong heart...

And, yeah, that can be me.

I prayed a while ago, like the disciples in Luke 11, for the Lord to teach me to pray.

I'm still learning the lessons, I guess...











*Actually have a cool story out of it from one of the bikers...but that's for another time...