PRIVILEGE OF PRAYER

   A few nights ago I was finishing up my prayers when I realized what a privilege it is to know about prayer. Those of us who do pray take it for granted, but if you think about it, praying is not available to some people. Sounds silly, doesn't it? If you are an atheist or an agnostic or something in between, you have no ability to pray because you have no belief in it or you haven't been taught about it. 

   On the highway west of the town where I live there is a sign which reads, "Pary for rain". Not only is it misspelled, but it's written in large, crude black letter. That doesn't matter though because whoever wrote it believes that there is hope that our drought-stricken area may get rain, particularly if we "pary for it". The point is that prayer denotes hope and without hope, we are pretty much left out in the cold. 

   It doesn't really matter what language we pray in, only that we recognize that there is a Supreme Being who is able to fix things for us if we ask. This Being may not always fix things the way we want them to be but the why of it is not for us to figure out. My father's favorite Bible quotation was "this too shall pass". Perhaps if we all think about that for a moment we will see that the "this", whatever it is, usually does pass.

   We here in the United States have legislated ourselves into a corner in reference to religion. One of the teachers who experienced the shooting at Sandy Hook school said "I knew I wasn't supposed to, but I prayed to God to help us". That's pitiful. She did what came naturally because she knew she needed help from a higher level. Our TV programs are not permitted to mention God, but they can use the word "goddamn" without any reprimand given.

   These are just rambling thoughts from one who is a bit too stiff and old to get down her knees and pray as I was taught when I was young. I am very glad I still have the privilege of prayer. I wish ore people realized how great it is.



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