Why People Think They Need to Pray

[Rhondazvous]

A few years ago my mother came out to visit and we spent the night at my sister’s place. The next morning was Sunday and I awoke with a bad headache. They asked me if I wanted to go to church with them. I did not and they both knew why. But neither did I want to sit in my sister’s apartment all morning with nothing to do but think about my aching head. So I went.

While sitting in church the ache began to spread to the back of my head, my neck and shoulders. Even my stomach decided to put in its $.02 of malaise. I wanted to lay down so bad but was sandwiched between my mother and sister in that crowded church. I couldn’t move. The pastor sounded like Obama right down to the “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” I decided to listen just to take my mind off the pain (before I go any further, this is FNOT a testimony about the blessings of going to church. Hie did not convince me that Christianity is true. But I took my own non-religious mental encouragement from his message.

On the way home, it dawned on me that my head no longer hurt. I realized that if I had prayed, I would have been convinced that the prayer was responsible. There would have been nothing anyone could have said to disabuse me. It was my relaxing and letting my body heal itself as it always does.

We’ve heard the testimonies of how god answers prayer, but unless god himself steps in and claims agency for the things that we experience, what we have is not proof, but mere interpretation.