Those logging trucks are going to choke me to death,” Linda said. “It has been so hot for so long that I don’t think there is a drop of moisture anywhere. And the dust, not to mention the non-stop roar of trucks from 4:30 in the morning till dark. We need to move out of this campsite right now!”
“Aww hon,” I said, “we just got here. This is the beginning of our holidays and this is our favourite fishing lake. Besides, I don’t know if I have any energy left to move. Why don’t you just pray for rain to control the dust?”
That night I know that’s exactly what Linda did and I know she did it fervently too, for she has a history of both serious asthma and zealous prayer. The next morning at 4:30 we awoke to the roar of logging trucks and billowing clouds of dust. By the afternoon it started to sprinkle rain. Linda smiled and prayed for more. That night it rained pussies and pooches. The following morning we awoke to dead quiet from the road and the gentle sound of rain on the RV roof. It rained all day.
After a week and a half of solid rain, Linda and I were lying in bed one morning listening to the rain on our roof and CBC radio. There was nothing else to listen to for all the logging was shut down in the area and all the other campers had left due to the non-stop rain. Raven Lake was deserted except for us. The dirt road out of the bush was a sea of mud, impassable for truck-loggers and trailer-towers alike. The radio announced that after the recent torrential downpours, Central B.C. was experiencing serious flooding and road washouts. Even the highway between Prince George and McBride was washed out and the bridge into Wells Grey Park was gone. Campers and residents alike were stranded in the bush. I looked across my coffee cup to Linda on the other side of the bed and said, “Well hon, I think this time ya just might have over done it a tad.”
Linda looked back at me and chuckled, “Ya think? Next time we come out here and it’s hot and dusty I sure won’t pray for rain.”
I laughed at her statement. We battened down the hatches and enjoyed another week of rain and quiet. Since the rain slowed down my fly-fishing a bit, I had plenty of time for contemplation. What I naturally got to thinking about was prayer. What Linda had said in jest, naturally moved me to think about what Tennyson had said in earnest: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”
Tennyson’s saying has probably influenced Christian attitude towards prayer more than everything the Bible says about it. It has fashioned in us an attitude that prayer makes things happen. It is an attitude that I heard continually from my Christian Science grandma in my childhood. And so this is exactly what I began to meditate on: Does prayer make things happen? As usual, for me, the lens through which I tend to look at stuff, both spiritual and temporal, is nature and Scripture.
As I thought about it, the example of praying for weather is a good one to examine when thinking through the hypothesis of prayer making things happen. It conjures up the image of one rancher with his hay cut, praying for the sun to cure it and another rancher down the road who has just got his field seeded, praying for rain to water it. Whose prayer is going to make the weather happen, the rancher who prays the hardest or the one who has the most faith or the one who is the most righteous? “God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Mt.5:45) It would appear that praying for weather, at least, is not going to make it happen.
But what about other stuff? As I considered this I remembered Paul’s instructions to his friends in Philippi. After repeatedly calling them to “rejoice in the Lord” at all times, Paul instructs them, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Ph.4:6) Influenced by the Tennyson quote, it would appear that what Paul is saying is, prayer makes things happen. But the word “supplication” is an interesting word here. The English word, and for that matter the original Greek word too, means to beg or to humbly plead. For me, this does not exactly invoke images of making things happen but rather the petitioning of the one who does make everything happen to consider your needs.
And I think that this is where Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane teaches me. Jesus fervently prays, to the point of sweating blood, for the cup of suffering to be lifted from him. And he prays this three times. Given that he is the one who has turned water into wine and raised the dead, I would expect that if anyone could pray and make things happen it would be him. Rather, he gets up off of his knees and goes to the cross with the words of relinquishment blazoned on his very being, “Thy will be done.” It turns out that this is the way Jesus begins prayer (Mt.6:10) and ends it (Mt.26:42).
For me this is where it all ends up. What begins with me expressing my deepest need, ends with me relinquishing what I want, to what God wants. It seems to me that petitioning prayer is, in the final analysis, not about making things happen. Rather it is, within the context of pouring out my needs to God, seeking the will of God. Gladys, a lady of considerable years and abundant wisdom in one of our house churches, puts it this way, “Petitioning prayer is saying to God you are ready to receive what he has always planned to give you.” Perhaps rather than Tennyson we need to be more influenced by George Müller who relied totally on God and prayed continually for his provision. Müller said that for him the most important part of petitioning prayer was the 15 minutes of silence after he had said “Amen”.
Author’s Note: MÜLLER, GEORGE (1805–1898) A Leader in the Plymouth Brethren Movement in England. He became the founder of Christian orphanages around the world based upon the principle that by faith and prayer alone the “Father to the fatherless” (Ps.68:5) still provided for his children.
