Comments on: Does it matter that prayer doesn’t work?

By: I have palmonary fibroisis

I have palmonary fibroisis — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 08:38:16 +0000

I pray for life filled with joy and laughter and love for all people on this earth for every breath they may take in this life. I have pulmonary fibrosis. I have wasted so much time. 4 to 5 years is all the time I have to give back.
God always blesses all of us. It took me along time to learn that. I have made so many mistakes in this life. With only myself to blame.No matter look up and see the butterfly. “A kiss from God” A wonderful thought.

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By: Paul Sunstone

Paul Sunstone — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:41:17 +0000

When I was very young, my babysitter told me about intercessionary prayer, so for about two weeks, I went around praying for things. Some things came to pass, some didn’t. Apparently I satisfied the curiosity I had about prayer in those two weeks, and, so far as I recall, I never took up intercessionary prayer again. Yet, now I wonder what caused me to loose interest in it, and whether I would have lost interest in it if I had been raised in a religious household.

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By: Sister Mary Lisa

Sister Mary Lisa — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:42:26 +0000

I’m thinking the praying and crying to God on Big Brother this season has GOT to end.

Great post, Chanson. I really enjoyed your thoughts here.

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By: Kullervo

Kullervo — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:29:44 +0000

Keep in mind that the rest of Christianity isn’t always as paranoid of or terrified of doubt as Mormonism.

Sure, simplistic Fundamentalists, maybe, but… they’re simplistic fundamentalists.

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By: INTJ Mom

INTJ Mom — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:32:56 +0000

Excellent thoughts, IMO. Your post reminds me of a discussion DH and I had about prayer back when the southern widowed mom and her kids were on the Amazing Race Family Edition. They kept talking about how they were praying for help and how devoutly religious they were, yet they were so rude and obnoxious toward everyone else in the game, and just in general a lot of the time.

It was interesting to us that they seemed to think by praying that they would hopefully somehow be shown favor over everyone else. Like that made them more deserving even though they were being rude and obnoxious to other people. We found their whole approach to be both amusing and distasteful.

I’m also reminded of that scene in a Big Love episode where one of the males is praying over his hunting rifle. Still makes me chuckle.

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By: woundedhart

woundedhart — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:43:35 +0000

My mom would call it synchronicity that you and I wrote about this on the same day, with sort of the same view. I swear I hadn’t already read your stuff when I posted mine. Thanks for the link, though. It’s amazing to me that Mother Theresa still did all she did, feeling so alone.

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By: Wayne

Wayne — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:30:33 +0000

When my niece was a baby she had some pretty serious medical problems. During the ordeal I spoke with my TBM sister about prayer.

She realized that the only thing that prayer really did was to help her accept what was going on.

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By: exmoron

exmoron — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:10:21 +0000

I’m going to pray that god/s/esses give me the intelligence to understand your post. If they do or don’t, it wasn’t meant to be…

Awesome post!

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By: chanson

chanson — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:49:15 +0000

FFG — that’s exactly the type of testimony I’m talking about. There but for the trace of Dog go I, or something like that…

There’s an extensive article about Mother Teresa’s crisis of faith in Time here, and an interesting shorter article here.

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By: FFG

FFG — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:38:52 +0000

Great topic! I was never great a praying even when I somewhat tried to be a TBM.

When I was a young teenager, we attended a fast and testimony sacrament meeting in a married ward at BYU (I think my niece was being blessed). A woman got up and bore her testimony on the power of prayer. She had always wanted to make good homemade bread, so she prayed all week. On Saturday, she made the bread, but it was a disaster. At first, she was confused and felt neglected by God, but then realized that it was a lesson. I had a very hard time stifling my laughs. Perhaps, God is too busy ignoring/laughing about the stupid prayers to change the course of hurricanes.

Recently, one of the national news reports focused on Mother Teresa. Apparently, the last few years of her life, she had written many letters (to the Pope, I think) questioning her beliefs. She had also stopped praying. I wish the news report would have gone into more details, because the idea of one of the greatest religious people of all time having doubts is very fascinating.

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