Prayer, What is it good for?

Recently I was visiting my parents in Arkansas.  Every time I go to Arkansas, I always have to go see my brother from another mother, Ryan Johnson.  We just hang out and talk.  We also have to geek out on the latest trailers from movies and even watch a Seinfeld episode or two.  We share a common love for Seinfeld.  One of our favorite episodes is the Marine Biologist.  If you have not seen that episode, you are missing out on one of the funniest television episodes in tv history.  In that episode, Elaine is meeting a famous Russian writer with her publishing firm.  She tells Jerry about it and they begin talking about Leo Tolstoy.  Jerry tells Elaine that Tolstoy's original title for his book War and Peace was War, What is it Good For?  Elaine thought he was joking, but he convinced her that he was telling the truth.  Later, Elaine is upset with Jerry because she made a fool out of herself in front of this Russian writer because she insisted that what Jerry had told her was true.

Prayer has become like this Seinfeld episode, at least in the eyes of the world.  After the incidents in San Bernadino yesterday, some public figures were criticized for tweeting prayers for the victims of the shootings.  The headline from the New York Daily News said, "God Isn't Fixing This."  It was critique of public officials who are perceived to do nothing but offer up prayers to a God that more and more people don't believe in.  The growing consensus is becoming, "Prayer, what is it good for?"

This really made me stop and think this morning as I was reading through social media and reflecting on the changing culture around us.  It made think about how I pray and how we are praying as Christians.  I thought to myself, "Are we praying to safe?"

Take the refugee controversy for example.  We pray for these refugees, but are we praying that God will use us as the Church to be a part of ministering to these refugees?  We pray for horrors in our world, but are we praying that God would use us to be a voice of hope and peace?

I think one of the reasons that more and more people are viewing prayer as a negative and powerless thing is because we our prayers are powerless.  We pray from a distance and ask God to keep us at a distance.  We don't want to be part of the front lines because we like our safe lives.  But, is that what we are called to be?  Are we called to be safe?

I just finished a book about the friendship between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.  The book also talked about their time in World War I and how those times shaped their great works The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings.  Those stories inspire us because they tell of tales of courage in the face of hopelessness and despair.  They tell tales of a lion named Aslan who is not safe, but good and tales of a hobbit who carried a great burden to save the world.  What is also so great about these tales is that they are tales of the Christian faith.  But, the faith they tell of is not a safe faith.  It is a faith that is willing to take action.  It is a faith that prays that the great God of the Scriptures will use us to bring hope and peace to a fallen and dark world.

I believe in that God.  I believe in praying to that God.  I believe in praying that God would use me to be part of His expanding kingdom even if it means that safety is left behind.  If we don't start praying to that God with the attitude of "God use me no matter what," then people are going to keep asking the question, "Prayer, what is it good for?" and the answer will be "Absolutely nothing."