Prayer is...

Right now, Prayer is a pair of 19 year old kids in Baghdad who just want to live through the night, and as long as each doesn’t find out where the other one is, they’ll both get their wish.

Right now, Prayer is 13 and so desperate that she’ll strike a deal with God, Satan or any power who can hear her, if it will just keep her brother in his own bedroom tonight.

Right now, Prayer is just learning how to talk and doesn’t yet understand what she’s saying. But she knows when Daddy’s eyes are closed and his hands are folded together the things he’s saying are something the whole family listens to.

Right now, Prayer is just coming to grips with the idea that after 87 years of waking up every morning, he probably won’t tomorrow.

Right now, Prayer is 34 and just watched the most important responsibility he’s ever agreed to take on open his eyes for the first time and open his mouth to add his voice to the world.

Right now, Prayer is being offered by an enemy like a gift that will never be opened.

Right now, Prayer is as cheap as the talk it’s made of.

Right now, Prayer is being remembered just a little too late to be done.

Right now, Prayer is the only company a prisoner has on his 15^th day in solitary.

Right now, Prayer is glad just to be able to make the rent this month.

Prayer isn’t an audience with the almighty as much as a CAT scan that you know how to read for yourself.

God isn’t dead, He’s just listening… waiting… not for you to tell him what you want. He already knows that. He just doesn’t care. He knows what you need even if you don’t. Hearing you say it is the only thing He needs. It’s the sound of your own voice finally getting it. You are capable of so much more.

Six billion realizations radiate out from the planet every day like finger tips trying to stretch far enough to smudge the sky. Our souls struggle like drowning men as our bodies pull us back towards the earth. Sometimes we remember what we are meant to be: beautiful. I know because every face I’ve ever seen has my father’s eyes.

But we forget what we’re born knowing. We practice ugliness to hide ourselves from each other. We tell ourselves lies like loneliness, until we believe them. The preacher’s got it wrong. Most people damn themselves.

But prayer is the simple truth of breathing into a receiver and knowing that someone on the other end can hear you. You don’t even have to talk. Just take a deep breath and be yourself.

Amen.