Prayer Remembers the Truth
Prayer is what you do when you're done struggling.
When you hear the word "prayer," you may have memories of being
bored to sleep as you squirmed next to your parents in church.
Or maybe you have images of pleading with a deity to grant your
wishes while you wring your hands. Do you call it prayer when
you stay up all night obsessing over your finances or the safety
of a loved one?
None of these activities are prayer: These are all symptoms of
wrestling with problems. Prayer is what you do when you're done
struggling with a problem, and you're ready to call forth its
solution. As Eric Butterworth says again and again in his book,
The Universe is Calling, prayer is not about trying to get God
to do something to you or give something to you. It's about
allowing God to do something through you.
When something troubles us, we often approach prayer with a
sense of urgency and tension. It's as if we're an ocean wave
facing a continent alone. The first thing we must do, then, is
relax into God. We quit acting like a wave that thinks it can
pound the shore all by itself. We give up the illusion of
separateness and relax into knowing that we are part of the
infinite ocean that God is. We envision ourselves drifting out
to sea, knowing that the ocean has far more power to shape the
shoreline than we have alone. If there's anything for us to do,
anywhere for us to go, the current will carry us there and give
us the power to do it.
If you don't like watery metaphors, Butterworth offers another
useful image. See yourself as an archer, and the solution to
your problem as a target. To send your arrow home, you don't
start hurling arrows willy-nilly at the bull's eye. And you
certainly don't start throwing arrows where you don't want them
to go. Similarly, in effective prayer, you don't spew out a lot
of words that focus on the problem - at least, not if you expect
to make your mark.
In archery, what you do is center yourself, take one arrow, draw
your bow, and LET GO. You remain still and let the arrow do its
work. When prayer is your bow, the arrow is your word. It may be
a statement of truth, such as "I am grateful for divine wisdom
that reveals to me my good," or "I am energized in mind and body
through the healing activity of God in me." It may be a familiar
scripture that focuses your attention on the target, your
solution, such as "Be still and know that I AM God." Then, you
let go and send your arrow home. Once you are centered, your
word cannot fail to reach its mark.
And what is the mark, or the goal of prayer? Speaking these
affirmations doesn't make them true. They already are true.
Whenever you are in distress, it is only because you have
forgotten your essential oneness with all that is good and true
in the universe. The only thing that ever needs correction is
your perception, and your perception is exactly what gets healed
in prayer. You'll know it has happened when a sense of gratitude
flutters through your spirit and across your face. And so it is.
Amen!