Prayer for... Everyone

This year seems to be attracting a lot of disasters. Some have been natural (tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes), some man-made (mine disasters, the BP platform explosion). For the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones in those disasters, as well as for everyone else who is suffering right now, I pray for peace and the strength to carry on through all of life's troubles, and hope that they can find happiness again, even if it seems it's been lost to them right now.

Spurred by a blog comment

One of the purposes of my reading blogs is to give me an idea of what people think. Sometimes I find that a paragraph, a sentence, or even just a phrase gives me something interesting to think about.

In this particular case, the comment mentioned how some Christians feel that only religious- or spiritually-based approaches to address certain behaviors is appropriate, and believes it is tied to the idea that to the idea that redemption comes from God alone.

Faith does not stand alone

Last year, a Wisconsin couple was charged with reckless homicide in the death of their daughter. The girl, who was 11, died from complications from untreated diabetes. The parents had not sought medical care, instead relying on prayer to heal their daughter.

Today they were sentenced to 10 years probation and 30 days a year in jail for the next six years. They plan to appeal. They don't think they did anything wrong.

Sunday's Prayer

"Oh God, if there is a God, save my soul, if I have a soul." —The Agnostic's Prayer

On the face of it, that's a joke. I see the humor in it, certainly. But I think that for a lot of people with faith, or who wish they had some sort of faith, it's also quite serious.

If you don't believe there's a God of any sort, it won't speak to you, I'm sure. And your faith may not involve a soul that needs saving, in which case it's probably not terribly apt, either. But if your faith does include speculation about the ultimate destination of your soul or self, you might see what I do in it.

Because sometimes for me it feels like what I'm really saying.

See, while I do have faith, and I do have a lot of hope regarding that faith, I also have reason. Despite how some particularly vocal Christians may act, not all of us have disputes with science or logic, both things that sometimes seem to stand in opposition to faith. I can't prove there's a God, or a soul, or an afterlife, or that He had any hand in evolution or writing the laws of the universe, both things I know exist. That can make it hard sometimes. I have my moments of skepticism about my own beliefs. I have my doubts.

But that prayer isn't just about doubt. It's also about hope, something which I more and more find goes hand in hand with doubt. It could be I'm wrong. It could be that God really doesn't exist, that what I call the soul is really just the mind, that death is a simple ending and there's absolutely nothing beyond that. Yet the doubts don't change the fact that I have faith. It's not just crying out "I want proof!"; it's acknowledging that there is no proof but that you still, somehow, believe.

So I join in with the author of that prayer, with both my doubts and fears in alignment:

God, if you exist, save my soul, if it exists and needs to be saved. Thanks, if you need thanks. Love (if you need love) -- Me