Two people were travelling through the desert. One would stop to pray five times a day, spreading his prayer mat on the burning sand. The two got on well together and one evening, the one who never prayed, after the lengthy prayer of his friend at sunset, turned to him and asked: “Why are you doing that? How do you know that God exists at all? The other looked at him thoughtfully. “How do you know that it was a camel and not a man that passed our tent last night?” “That’s obvious”, replied the other, “the camel left prints in the sand, they were perfectly clear to see! They were certainly not footprints of a man!” The guide turned to the splendour of the desert’s western sky, which was at that moment lit by astonishing shafts of red, gold and purple light: “Neither are those the footprints of a man” he said, “The world is full of the footprints of God.”
Prayer changes the way we look at things. Many people find that their belief in God gives them a sense that life “makes sense”. It enables them to say: “Yes life makes sense if you look at it like that”. Praying to God enables them to hear the harmonies in the things which life brings.
A friend of mine told me: “When I pray, coincidences happen all the time. When I don’t pray, they don’t.” Prayer changes things, real answers to prayer are the experience of every believer. But also, we change. Our thought patterns, (which are critical for defining who we are), alter; the way we relate to people, both friends and foes, will change with God’s help. The way we look at the world and life will change. We become able to see God’s presence in circumstances and events, which without prayer would simply be dark and hopeless.
Prayer enables us to catch a live-giving virus – God’s Spirit bearing witness in our hearts to his presence.
Sarah
Responses
Dear Mother Sarah, thank you for this timely and profound thought