Prayer Isn’t a Superpower
A longtime friend, upon learning that I am adopting a practice of praying the Divine Office, asked me: “To what end?”
I thought about that exchange when I ran across an argument here on Medium that looks back on a 2006 study of intercessory prayer that seems to suggest praying for the sick doesn’t actually heal them.
There’s a thought experiment I like to use in these kinds of situations. Imagine you’re living in a struggling neighborhood, there’s one old man with money, and you want a new car. So you make a point of going to his front porch every day and starting up a conversation with him, all because you want the car. And your assessment of whether those conversations “work” is based entirely on whether he eventually buys you a car.
If you wouldn’t do that to another human being, why do it to God?
A world where prayer always works is a world where prayer is magic, where God’s an instrument, and where faith is won over with bribes. It’s a pretty depressing world, and it would make us pretty depressing people.
Pray because you want something, pray because you’re desperate or in pain, pray because it’s time, pray because your family won’t eat dinner until you do, pray because you’re grateful; pray because you want to get rid of potholes, if you’re so inclined. But don’t judge the efficacy of prayer by how everything turns out. That’s Meriba and Massah, or the second temptation of Jesus in the desert.
If you believe in a personal God, treat him like a person — not a thing — and accept that a conversation is not necessarily going to result in you getting what you want.
