Choosing A Protocol of Prayer

     I have prayed the fervent prayers of a mother with a feverish child, uttered anguished prayers over a loved one's plight, concerned prayers of a parent handing over car keys, offered prayers of thanksgiving and sorrow as I've sat with those breathing their last breaths. I wish I thanked God more: for the lilies, the gold finches, the fawn that just ran across my yard at a full run; for the old people I love and the new ones I've yet to meet; for the friends and family who have been hewn and are steadfast as rock in my life.
     Recently, while talking about prayer, a friend replied, "I'm no good at it." This got me thinking. I told her, "I'm no 'good at it' either, I just do it a lot." I've heard there's a Chinese proverb that says, "Before preparing to improve the world, first look around your own home three times." Prayer, if anything, helps me get my spiritual home in order. Before I can pray for peace, or for others, or for whatever/whomever I wish to pray for or about, I seek God in silence, try to get quiet in light of all the noise, just to listen, to be still.
      A pilot friend of mine recently had to make his first-ever-emergency landing.
I asked him, "Were you afraid?"
He replied, "No. I had too many things to do, there was protocol to follow."
     Prayer can be like that. In the midst of all the noise and urgency of life, instead of choosing fear or worry, choosing a protocol of prayer. Prayer is the go-to plan, and when the emergencies have passed, prayer is also remembering to say, "thank you."

Prayer

Holy One,
Sometimes what we want is answers--
why things happen as they do,
and to know where You are active
and where You are not, and why?
Today we ask for Your grace.
We ask for courage to live brave lives
full of compassion for others.
We ask for peace everywhere, and justice.
We ask for Your presence.
Thank You for what we cannot see with our eyes.
Thank You.
Amen.

Quotes on prayer & peace
"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." --Karl Barth

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it - always."--Mahatma Gandhi

"In my dream I scratch my head and get up and listen. I listen and listen, until the dawn. All my life I have heard rain, and I am an old man; but now for the first time I understand the sound of spring rain on the river at night. -Yang Wan-li

Originally written for the Odyssey Network's "Million Minutes for Peace" Program
http://www.amillionminutesforpeace.org/on-prayer-SusanBaller-Shepard.shtml