 Spiritual: September 26, 2012 Issue [#5284] |
  Spiritual
This week: The Power of Prayer Edited by: Jeff  
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"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.
To one without faith, no explanation is possible."
-- Thomas Aquinas
Spirituality Trivia of the Week: The Bahá'í Faith is notable for its emphasis on spiritual unity. Its approximately six million devotees believe that God has revealed himself to us through a series of divine messengers, including Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Mohammed, and others. Accordingly, no one religion is the one true religion, since they are all different facets and incarnations of the same God, who merely provided a specific religious ideology suited to the specific needs and people at each time in our history. The Bahá'í Faith believes that Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and most of the world's other religions are not separate belief systems, but all are part of the same unified and progressive manifestation of God's presence in our lives.
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THE POWER OF PRAYER
When it comes to the topic of prayer, it seems that there are an endless number of stories about its power to heal, support, and encourage. Some people who are sick or injured or hurting report receiving prayer and a subsequent and miraculous recovery from whatever was afflicting them. And there have been countless studies about the efficacy of prayer, to determine whether or not these people are telling the truth, lying, or just believe it to be the truth.
Wherever religion and the divine are concerned, there's sure to be a great deal of debate. There are empiricists who look at data and claim that in most cases, prayer offers no significant improvement to a condition. Then there are the devoted, who truly believe in the omnipotent power of a higher authority, and thus He can (and does) miraculously heal people through His power alone. And then there are those who take a more behavioral view of the topic and believe that it's not prayer, but rather the power of positive thinking that accounts for these testaments to the effectiveness of prayer.
I've recently been going through a rough time at work... the promotion I was promised has been postponed until at least the beginning of the new year, we're short-staffed and have a hiring freeze in place that prevents us from getting more help, and it's an exceptionally busy time with a lot of projects that need to be juggled between a department that's increasingly short-tempered, frustrated, and resentful. To make matters worse, my commute has been particular horrid and it's just generally been one of those times most of us have at some point in our lives, where the daily grind really is grinding me down and starting to fray my nerves.
And then yesterday, a series of things happened that made it an exceptionally good day. Work was surprisingly quiet and I was able to get caught up on a ton of work because people weren't making tons of demands on my time. My company is sending me to New York in a couple of weeks, which just happens to dovetail with a vacation my wife and I have been planning to visit New England, so we're actually going to get to spend almost a week in the city, and then go on a drive through New England over a long weekend. On top of that, I volunteered for the communications team at my church and my first blog post went up yesterday after receiving incredibly positive feedback from the staff. And if that wasn't enough, I've been applying (with no success) for jobs at a very popular (and hard to get into) company close to home (the last paragraph should give you some idea of the motive behind this...  ), and not only did I recently find a job that is literally almost perfectly in line with my professional experience, but I realized that one of the employees there and I share a mutual friend, through whom this employee agreed to forward my resume straight to HR himself to save me from the roulette wheel that is job applications through online form submissions.
When I called my wife to tell her about all the amazing things that happened to me yesterday, she just laughed and said, "My church life group and I have been praying for you all week."
I was floored. I had no idea they had done that, or that there were people out there actively praying for me to have some silver lining to the several weeks of misery I'd been feeling up until yesterday.
Now, the cynic might claim that it's all a coincidence, or an inevitable result. It was only a matter of time before I would have had to go to New York, I was bound to find an ideal job if I submitted enough resumes, statistically speaking it's not unlikely that there would be a shared connection between any given person and a company that employs several hundred people in the same community, etc. Some might even point out that nothing has really changed at all. Sure it was a less stressful day yesterday, but it's less stressful because I used my time productively, and that trip to New York might be canceled, and I might never even get called in for an interview for that job, and the blog post was a success because I've been writing and blogging for years, and so on and so forth.
Whether it was their prayers or my hard work mixed with coincidence and good timing that produced my positive experience, I can't say. What I can say, though, is that I woke up today more energized and refreshed than I've felt in a long time. And it's not because yesterday was a good day; it's because I don't feel like I'm struggling alone in a vacuum. I know there are people out there spending some of their precious day trying to make my day a little better, and that's an amazing feeling.
Maybe that's the point... maybe the real power of prayer isn't in the expectation that God will reveal himself and magically provide a cure to whatever's ailing us, but in the knowledge that we're not alone in the world with our problems. Maybe, to you, not being alone means that God is actively working in your life. Or then again, maybe not being alone simply means that other people care enough to think about you during their day.
Either way, you have someone in your life... and maybe that's the point. To show us that we don't ever have to struggle alone.
Until next time,
-- Jeff
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I encourage you to check out the following spiritual items:
I do not understand how automobile engines work. Airplane engines mystify me.
My next-door neighbor is, right this moment, out in front of my house, attempting to replace a water pump on his van. He spoke kindly with me for a few moments, gently explaining the entire process to me.
Well, at least I believe he was speaking kindly to me. From the inflections of his dialect, it seemed as though he were speaking kindly to me. I could not swear to this in a Court of competent jurisdiction, however.
A lot of people say that they don’t believe in God, I guess I am one of them people I don’t believe much in God and I am far from religious but to say that I definitely do not believe in God what so ever would be a lie. I think this applies to everyone although you may not agree. Everybody speaks to God whether they realise it or not and everybody must believe in him/her in one way or another.
Good cannot exist without evil. It is because of evil that we can identify goodness at all. Most people deny the presence of goodness and focus entirely on suffering or challenges seeing the world as purely evil. How can God just let evil happen? Why is there pain and suffering in the world? Evil disapproves of Goodness but faith is active, demanding a response.
There are many names for God. Hinduism has 11 not to mention that there are 330 million Devas and 660 million Asuras (Devas and Asuras are two different names for the word deity); Sahasranama is a type of Hindu scripture that has 1,000 or more different names for deity; Sikhism, another Indian religion, has hundreds of names for God; Judaism has several names such as Yahweh and Elohim; Christianity has such names as "Alpha and Omega," "I Am That I Am"; Quakers often refer to God as "The Light"; Jehovah's Witnesses, as implied in their name, refer to God as "Jehovah"; In Mormonism Father God's name is Elohim; Islam's most well-known name for God is "Allah"; Sufism, a variation of Islam, has an untold amount of names for God; African religions have a long list of names for God; Not to mention Native American religions and Zoroastrianism (a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster in the eastern part of ancient Iran) also have their own distinct names for God.
A twilight settles, for a moment, on those lively, moving shapes--
softening and alleviating them.
The twilight settles, for a time, dimming and diminishing those shapes;
allowing us to quite forget that they were there.
The twilight never lifts; the shapes are lost.
To the average person death is by no means a pleasant subject of discussion. To many It is something sad, maybe repulsive. The average person immersed as they are in the " self", ever seeking after the pleasurable, ever pursuing that which excites and gratifies the senses, refuses to pause and ponder seriously that these very objects of pleasure and gratification will some day reach their end.
If wise counsel does not prevail and urge the unthinking pleasure seeking person to consider seriously that death can knock at their door. It is only the shock of a bereavement under their own roof, the sudden and untimely death of a loved one, friend, parent, wife or child that will rouse them up from their sense of gratification. And rudely awaken them to the hard facts of life.
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Feedback from my last newsletter on religion and politics:
Specter  says, "Faith? Faith can be like running through a brier patch in a disbelieving and misbelieving world. Faith is a gift of God, given to each in measurement in accordance to what each one deserves. Paul certainly ran through that brier patch and picked up a thorn to his hurt. Faith is the living throb of a giving heart. Faith is the tear of His love. Faith is the light of His understanding. Faith is knowing God... And Love is given to love and Understanding is given to understanding and the sharing of faith is the temple of God. Ah, this faith, such a faith is His Leading Light in you.
Ask the Lord, even for faith and understanding and receive all in gladness."
I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say faith is a gift given "to each in measurement in accordance with what each one deserves." Is that to say some people are undeserving of spiritual clarity and conviction? I love your point about faith being something one can ask for just as readily as other virtues like understanding, patience, etc., but I wonder - for those struggling to believe - how they can expect to be given the gift of faith if God has already determined that they are undeserving of having it in the first place. Perhaps it is then a gift those people must earn some way or another? Fascinating topic for a debate. 
BIG BAD WOLF is Merry  says, "Watch the birds."
rixxie says, "The spiritual newsletter is very inspiring, and well thought out. I'm going to read it on a regular basis, continued success."
Thank you so much! 
shoumojit says, "This is a nice and enlightening piece with candid observation and sharp intellect have agreed to test the divine existence, till you don't experience it and now with so much of vibrant understanding of uncertainty in your life as your wife is looking a a job and you have moved to a higher strata and to maintain you have expressed the possibility of leap of faith in a creative and rather intelligent manner,with experience people can easily associate like I was tense when watching Indiana Jones taking the step in thin air in last crusade.All this did make a excellent example and a intelligent read and absorption.."
Thank you for writing in, and I'm glad you enjoyed the newsletter!
johnnyscat says, "I enjoyed the Leaps of Faith article immensely"
Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment! 
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