Prayer Works!

Theologians define nuances and spin eloquent explanations about prayer. Pastors spend time encouraging and inspiring their congregations, urging them to pray. Authors write books and study guides to promote more effective praying. Small groups are scattered across the landscape sitting knee-to-knee, holding hands and intoning deep, hopeful desires.

 

Pragmatists wonder, “Does prayer work?” Is anything going to happen? Sometimes life throws something akin to a Justin Verlander fastball, 100 miles per hour, high and inside. (Verlander is the Detroit Tigers’ ace World Series pitcher. GO TIGERS! About three years ago we woke up to the reality that Pat has Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and we have enlisted everyone we know to pray for her healing, and for both of us as we cope with a debilitating disease. Both Pat and I have been Jesus’ followers since we were elementary school age. We learned to pray as children and continue to grow in our prayer experience. Prayer sustains and the Spirit warms our hearts, urges us to trust, and encourages us to try again when the high inside fastball is followed by a slow breaking slider at which the best of hitters swing and miss. But the best of hitters don’t quit after strike two! Praying people don’t quit either!

 

I made an investment at a garage sale where I purchased Michael J. Fox's memoir, Lucky Man for $1.00. The actor of TV and big screen fame announced he has youthful onset Parkinson’s in the 1990's and has become an advocate for PD research and understanding in the marketplace. Explanation of symptoms and frustration from another voice made the memoire helpful, but was a difficult read for a couple of reasons. First it is laced with profanity and reveals a lifestyle hard for Jesus followers to admire. Second Fox’s experiences and ours are too painfully similar.

 

It is safe to say that Michael J. Fox does not define prayer as we have learned and experience prayer. But, he is a pragmatist! He answers emphatically, “Prayer works!” As I cruised toward the conclusion of the book, I was startled by the following lengthy quote.

 

“At one time or another, during times of personal struggle or loss, we’ve all heard people tell us they would ‘pray for us.’ Just an expression, I’d always thought, until I felt the power of that sentiment when it was offered, and meant, by tens of thousands of people. The feeling is overwhelming; I have no doubt that being on the receiving end of so much spiritual energy has gone a long way to sustain me over the last couple of years. I no longer underestimate the power of prayer.

 

“Nor, it seems, do some scientists. I recently read about an experiment in which researchers at Columbia University tested the power of prayer to help women with fertility problems. A group of strangers . . . in America, was asked to pray for a group of women in a Korean fertility clinic who had no knowledge of the experiment. At the same time, a separate control group at the clinic received no prayers. At the end of the study, fifty percent of the women who’d been prayed for got pregnant, while only twenty-six percent of the control group conceived. This is the exactly opposite of what the researchers expected – their stated intention had been to disprove the efficacy of prayer.”

 

Pat and I pray daily for friends whose daughter suffers from cancer, some who are unemployed, others whose children are unsaved, for our neighbors, and our church. Pat’s health and other challenges we and others face remain as difficult as a major league pitcher’s “cutter.” We have learned about prayer, but we are also pragmatists. “Prayer works!” Thanks for your prayers!