Does Prayer Work?

It is a relief to report that the health scare within my loved ones has passed. Everything is okay, and I can confirm that prayer got me through it.

Now, as a former cynic myself, I know what many of you must be thinking - and I will confess that my version of faith does not include a God that either saves or destroys lives to teach lessons or bless believers. My faith is more of a positive energy with Good aim kind of faith, so I believe if I pray my ass off and focus on positive outcomes, more Good (or God) will come my way. 

Does it solve all problems? No. 

Does it get me through them better than worrying about and frantically trying to prevent every possible negative outcome? You betcha. 

I can’t say for sure if my prayers on this terrifying topic did anything more than just helped me get through them, but they did help. Praying also made me feel like I was doing something where basically nothing else but worrying could be done. 

Prayer has become this mechanism with which I excise the burden of all my fears, and also my hopes and dreams, because let’s be real - our hopes and dreams and how they will ever happen can get worrisome or burdensome, too. Prayer helps me feel like I have some agency in situations where I may not have any influence, but it takes the shape of a different kind of energy aimed at my problems. Where I once worried the BLEEP out of any given situation, in a rather active, almost aggressive or critical way, prayer is more loving, peaceful, and passive. 

Does it stop me from getting things done in a day? No, quite the opposite. Every time I worry or fear, I say a prayer, I aim golden, glowing energy at a person, place, or thing driving me absolutely BLEEPING nuts, then I proceed with the task at hand. Do I have to do this more than once a day? Sure. Some days I have to do it ten times in a day. It still saves me time and energy in the long run, because I’m less miserable in the process. 

So, for all of you out there wondering if or how prayer even works, I am here to ask does it even matter if it actually works? What matters is that our behavior changes. What matters is how we engage with our problems changes. What matters is how much hope we have. And praying for our problems, instead of worrying the BLEEP out of them, probably does actually make them better in the long run, for reasons too numerous to mention here. As we change, the way our life engages with us changes, too. It has to.