Extra: "Do Our Prayers Make It Rain?"

Questions like these are what prompted me to create this blog and title it the way I have. A "pensive parson" is a preacher who takes time to reflect and think. I am not one who believes we need to check our minds at the door in order to follow Christ. I am also one who shares common ground with the name Israel, in that I am one who "who struggles with God" about faith and life. Each time, I lose the struggle and find blessing in the losing (which I believe is the way it is supposed to be). I warn you now that you may not read here what you often do on this subject.

We live in a farming area, so there are many of you who have known what it is to keep faith and a livelihood amidst the changes of weather. Most farmers I know are people of faith, which is interesting because they surely have it tested more than many. We also live in an area that is experiencing what some are calling a 12-year drought, part of a regular cycle in this part of the world. In Lubbock, our mayor and the pastors of Pray Lubbock have urged corporate prayer for rain. And during a couple of years during this drought, we have had higher than average rain. They are saying it was because we prayed. They have quoted James 5 as support.

I have no problem with praying for rain, nor for anything else for which we have need. My problem is that quite often the same system that gives us rain right on time here floods and wipes out others. And I have noticed lately that Lubbock folks are learning to pray more specifically, "Lord, send rain, but not too much." So if we have received steady but safe rain, like last week, is it because we prayed for it to happen that way? And did those who were flooded not pray specifically enough or were they more sinful and received punishment?

When I am late for an appointment, do my prayers for a good parking space cause the spaces to open up? When I pray for people to get well do my prayers cause them to be healed? Do my prayers make anything happen? Like my earlier discussion on predestination, my faith and understanding are still developing about what prayer does. I don't believe my prayers or our prayers together make it rain. What our prayers do is open us up to God in our need and God through nature makes it rain. When I pray for people who are sick, I am inviting God into the mix of our lives and opening up to his presence, and he does the healing in his way and in his time. As for the parking space, quite often this prayer is denied. In fact, the traffic will often be worse and the parking spaces even further away than normal. Is it my lack of faith that causes that dear child of God to pull right into that spot just ahead of me? Possibly. Is God trying to teach me to be better at time management,refusing to enable by last-minute style, choosing to make me more miserable rather than happy? More possibly. But which is more important, that I get my desired parking space or that I develop a stronger relationship with the one to whom I pray and allow his presence to fill my day to day experiences? Which is more important, that I get my prayers answered according to my desire and my timetable or to allow God to become more involved with me as I wait and learn new desires?

I do believe in prayer deeply, and its power to shape life itself in ways that are beyond imagination. But prayer is not what makes things happen. Prayer is what invites God into the mix and invites us to be more aware of his presence and his work in us and around us. And God is the one that makes things happen. I invite your comments.