Thoughts on Prayer

 Thoughts on Prayer 

I see a lot of Facebook posts with little hands in prayer.  Many people ask for prayer.  I never comment with those little praying hands or with comments such as “I’m praying for you”.

Three days ago, I saw this post: “Prayers Please!!  And keep them coming!!! Lord, we need you now!!”    Following the post are three pictures of hands in prayer.  There was no indication in the post who the prayers were for.  There were 57 comments to the post of which 50 used “lord”, “prayer”, “god”, or little hands praying.  Seven, of which mine was one, sent a heart, good wishes, or in my case, “keeping you in my thoughts”.  Not a person in the posts questioned to whom the prayers were meant.

Yesterday, two days after the first post, came this post: “Heaven gained an Angel. My Sweet Husband Jonathan has gone to be with the Lord. He entered this world 55 years ago, and what a magnificent testimony of what Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ can do for a man.”  There were one hundred and thirty-three comments.  My comment: “the best of positive thoughts being sent your way”. 

I do want to convey my positive spirit and good thoughts to people but I don't want to offer them prayer as I do not pray.  Perhaps Susan’s words, “may you find solace” would have been more meaningful than my “positive thoughts” comment.  I just don’t know.  The often used “May their memory be a blessing” might also have worked though one might argue that a blessing is the same as prayer, thought I am far more comfortable with offering a blessing as one of the words’ definitions is: “something that makes one happy or content” 

I have found many new relatives, and some are super Christians.  It seems like almost every post from my sister-in-law and my niece involves Jesus, the Lord, and a New Testament Bible passage.  Same is true for my newly found Florida relatives.  I have a second cousin in Southern California, who I have yet to meet, who lost her husband to COVID and is trying to find the meaning of life through prayer.  I can understand that, but it makes it difficult for me to connect or to respond to her Facebook posts.  I am constantly trying to find ways to comment and provide encouragement without invoking God and prayer.

On our recent road trip, we met some of my newfound Texas relatives.  We met for the first time ever at a Mexican restaurant for lunch.  Before we ate, we all held hands, bowed our heads, and offered thanks.  I felt terribly uncomfortable, but did it anyway given it was within the first five-minutes of meeting them.  Later that same day, my cousin wanted us to go with her to a church dinner, but we managed to get out of that one.  Thinking about it for the writing of this paper, if she would have been Jewish and invited us to her synagogue, we would have done.  So perhaps there it is more the feeling of being out of place in what I would assume to have been a holy roller church.  We did visit many Catholic Cathedrals on the same road trip, all out of choice.  We went because they were special buildings, historic, or had a certain beauty.   In some I felt something special, a serenity, a peace, but not God or prayer.  I just can’t get myself to a point of prayer and the traditional thought of God.

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