Self-Reinforcing Cycles of Prayer...

Hey all! I hope everyone's having a good summer! I know a lot of people are doing summer school and what not, so good luck to them haha. Anyways, I've still been melding ideas for my big writing project, which I'm probably going to start this week... Of course I keep on telling myself that, so we'll see hahah.

Regardless, one of the issues that's been on my mind goes back to one of the core components of Christianity. Lots of people that I've talked with have said that part of the reason why they know their faith is well-placed and genuine is due to their prayers. It may be due to me growing up more in a Christian environment (Valley Christian, Church, etc.), but some older people that I've talked to have told me stories about how their prayers have come true and that's how they know God is listening. These things range from really small things, such as being able to find some lost object, to pretty large things, such as healing from cancer.

Now, even though it may be of interest to address the actual effectiveness of these prayers and their differing sizes, that's not something I believe I can do accurately. Lots of it is hard to analyze due to simply so many factors that may be present, such as whether or not something is divine (getting a job due to God's will), self-inspired (praying gives one self-confidence), or whether something self-inspired can be divine (the confidence came from God). This is something I also hold interest in, yet do not feel that I should write on just yet.

Rather, the part of prayer that I am more interested in is the outcome. Or perhaps, it would be more accurate to say the different outcomes that may arise. To bring things to a somewhat simple model, there are typically three outcomes for prayer: Yes, No, and not yet. 'Yes' means the prayer was answered, 'No' means that the prayer wasn't answered, and 'not yet' means that the prayer was a 'No' for now, but may be a 'Yes' later (these may have been self-explanatory, but are still important to have clarified!).

Now, it would be quick to notice that not all prayers get answered, even the prayers of the heavily devout. How could this fit mentally for those that believe prayer has such a power, yet their prayers don't come true? Essentially, the simplest explanation came from an Air1 Broadcast I heard the other day (they seem to give me good material for writing, at the very least haha). The person speaking presented the idea of a kid at a place like a candy store. The kid, who is fascinated by sweets, wants to eat just about everything he can. Yet, the parent, knows that if the kid does eat everything he'll have a stomach ache and thus be worse off in the end (The speaker didn't use this exactly analogy, but it had the same idea...). The speaker then likened this idea to God and us when it comes to prayer: perhaps us getting everything that we want through prayer may not always be best for us. This may bring up issues from others saying that the prayer is truly questionable if you can't pray for anything to happen right away. Even though this is (again) another point of interest, what is important is that this prayer, even though it didn't not come true, is reinforcing to the person who prayed. Thus, a 'yes' answer to prayer would be reinforcing to a person praying, but a 'no' answer can also be reinforcing.

A 'not yet' answer is interesting, for it's hard to tell whether or not it's truly a 'not yet' or a 'no' until you look in hindsight. Thus, it may be more appropriate to look to a 'not yet' as a no in the short-run, which is probably the way people are going to be analyzing the issues at the time anyways. Yet, if this is the case, we seem something interesting arise: A 'yes', a 'no', and a 'not yet' can all be positively reinforcing to the person praying, for they all have some form of acknowledgement by God to the person.

BUT! This conclusion is only one person's perspective. You see, to one who is a Christian, the answer may seem satisfactory. Yet, for those that are not Christians all answers are quite questionable. A 'yes' could be something divine, but for those that don't believe in something/someone divine can attribute something simply to chance (There are many other possibilities, of course, but it's just one example to give you an idea). Also, the 'no' and 'not yet' I have commonly heard to as cop outs; how do you know a divine being is there without any form of recognition? Thus, all three answers, which may be openly accepted by a Christian and are self-reinforcing, can be seen as quite questionable as though that aren't Christian.

This would lead to a conflict of perspectives... Hm, I guess other than trying just to establish a difference of viewpoints is to show that sometimes speaking from Christian principles may not be the best way to make someone more recipient to the views of Christianity. Like, arguing about the power of prayer may do nothing for one who doesn't believe prayer can even be effective. Of course, this is not something that can be true for all situations, but may be a general rule of thumb to stick to... Overall, it's important to try and see stuff from other people's perspectives rather than just our own. Even though arguing for something you believe in may make your convictions in it stronger, how much does that do for another who doesn't agree with you? Of course, please don't think I'm saying not to fight for what you believe, but just to realize that you're not the only one in the world... Oh well, food for thought...