(March 2, 2013 at 11:08 pm)futilethewinds Wrote: When people ask me to pray for ______ on Facebook, I don't want to be a jerk, but I kind of feel like they should know that magic only works in fairy tales. I know they're in a place of pain, but they should ask for people's support dealing with the situation, which can actually help, not for people to talk to their imaginary friends. How should I respond to prayer requests?
What they're really doing is reaching out to other humans for support. They have learned in their particular cultural and social environment to express that in terms of "please pray for ......" Just translate that into your own frame of reference as "please keep me in mind with positive thoughts I need people around supporting me right now"
And of course you don't need to respond at all. On Facebook non-response is sort of standard. But if they are in fact a real friend for whom you care and to whom you do want to respond, you can respond honestly from your own frame of reference something like: "hey I'm thinking of you in your difficult situation"
The point of the request is to gather human support, you can give that support in your own way.
having passed through many states of believing I was right I have come to the place of finding "rightness" rather irrelevant to the project of becoming human
