Caution: This post will make you extremely uncomfortable and will probably make you dislike me.
Amidst the Philippine-American War, Mark Twain wrote a short story entitled, The War Prayer. This brief work details the account of a patriotic church service focused on praying for the enlisted men headed off to war. During the service, the pastor of the church leads the congregation in a long prayer, asking for God’s presence with the American soldiers as they head into battle, to “aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work…shield them in the day of battle…make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory.”
As the pastor prays, a frail, old man appears on the stage near the pulpit. As the pastor finishes his prayer, the old man touches him on the shoulder and speaks: “I come…bearing a message from Almighty God!” This messenger tells the congregation that this prayer has been heard, so long as they understood the “full import” it carries. It turns out, the prayer is not one but two, “one uttered, the other not.” But God has heard both. For, “When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for the many unmentioned results which follow victory—must follow it.” The messenger proceeds to tell them the unuttered part of the prayer:
“O Lord our God…Help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead…
Help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire;
Help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief;
Help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended…
For our sakes, who adore Thee, Lord,
Blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage…water their way with tears…
We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love
And who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset…”
The congregation’s response to the real truth of the prayer they had offered to heaven? “ It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.” The End.
As I think of the $670 billion spent in Iraq for our military endeavor, the 4 million Iraqis displaced from their homes, the 1.3+ million Iraqis who have died since our invasion of their country, the pictures I have seen of orphaned and wounded Iraqi children, the ravaged Iraqi countryside, and the many years it will take for that country to be stabilized, I must ask, what kind of prayer did we pray? What are the implicit prayers we have prayed as a nation as we send our sons (and daughters) to Iraq? While the “unuttered” prayer in the story speaks only to the ravaging effects war has on the country being attacked, we need only think of the news headlines from this week alone to think of another implicit prayer at work as we pray for “victory”:
O God, may we damn our country before the eyes of the world.
May we shame ourselves by horrendous acts of torture upon the “enemy.”
May our leaders debate in anguish over the value of photographs depicting our soldiers’ actions.
May our men open fire upon their own platoon and send their fellow soldiers home in a coffin.
May Iraqi women be gang-raped and their families murdered.
May we hide from the truth, refusing to believe what “America” has become.
On a completely different (though not wholly dissimilar note), the idea that our prayers often have an unuttered aspect to them makes me wonder about the underside of all our prayers, wonder how often all kinds of prayers of blessing for ourselves turn out to be a curse upon someone else. One man thanks God for a sunny day at the beach; a farmer down the road curses God for allowing his crops to die. One man prays their team will win; another prays in support of the opponent [does God care?]. One man thanks God for the 4-course meal before him; a child in Haiti wonders if God is going to do anything about the world food crisis. One man thanks God he has a new job because the new factory did indeed open; another man curses God for being laid off as the company relocates. How do we reconcile this fact? How does God deal with all of this (Which reminds me of the move Bruce Almighty when Bruce makes a computer program to keep track of everyone’s prayers and simply replies “Yes” to all of them.)? Your thoughts?
A Prayer to Live in Abundance Not Scarcity
3 years ago
5 comments:
Would you be sad if I didn't respond?
First of all your post did not make me dislike you (is that a double negative?). There is only a short list of things you could do to make me dislike you, most of them involve harming my family in someway--even then I might still like you if you had a good reason.
This is not at all the first time I have thought of these things. And even in the same context. These things make my heart sad. It is in these moments, when I see the tiniest glimpse of the bigger picture, that I see the sovereignty of God. It is quite humbling when you think of all the times you have complained to God, or questioned your circumstances, or the fairness of life. I seriously do not want God's job. It seems terribly hard. On a lighter, less significant note, it is ironic to think of the high school football coach who leads his team in prayer before the big game, only to enter the next locker room and see the very same thing. Both teams pray for victory, and for the other team's demise. Yet only one prayer is answered. Only one team is the winner. It just seems silly to me.
I think it also points out that as humans we are all so focused on our circumstances. We pray for God to change our circumstances, heal our bodies, etc. What would our prayers be like if we simply focused on our hearts and our character. I am guessing they would be quite different. If our desire really was to be more Christlike, and we realized that God refines us through suffering, would we be so quick to ask for victory, or success, or all sunshine?
I think this discussion sheds new light on the verse that explains how the Holy Spirit intercedes for us on our behalf. How often do we truly realize what we are praying for? I am guessing that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us more often than we ever realize.
But the question remains, if God knows our hearts and our thoughts already, and he knows we are selfish, self-righteous, and self-centered, and unable to grasp a greater view of the world, is their any point to praying anything other than what is on our hearts, until they are changed? Or should we be less grateful for a blessing (sunshine, full bellies, safety) if we know that someone else has suffered because of it?
I am grateful that I don't have to make these decisions. It is difficult enough for me to decide what to make for dinner.
p.s. sorry if i annoy you, I have decided that these discussions we have online keep my stay-at-home mother brain from turning to sludge, and me from drooling out the side of my mouth all day.
I think God carefully weighs the merits of our prayers before going full-on in support of something unwise. Better yet, I think such prayers as those for a sunny day at the beach are probably more or less ignored, but like a parent to a small child, he appreciates the sentiment (soon Emerson will think you're the strongest man on Earth-- while you'll know he's wrong, you'll probably still like it).
That aside, I think your general point about thinking twice before putting God on the side of our military is absolutely right, but I wish you'd moderate the tone a little. Nobody, myself included, is in favor of the Iraq War-- but blog posts like this fuel the idea that some idiot (who was elected twice by this nation to the presidency) single-handedly spent almost as much as Obama's proposed budget to rape, torture, and destroy. I know you know that's not true. The issue is more complex than either the pseudo-patriotic "God is on our side!" or even the more correct "God is on everyone's side (or nobody's side, which is in effect the same)."
G
Megan, of course I'd be sad if you didn't respond! I really appreciate your point about circumstances. So often our "blessings" can lead to "curses" and "curses" to "blessings" that we should probably view our circumstances a lot more loosely than we do.
Good point about the Holy Spirit and Rom 8:26. Perhaps we should preface all our prayers with, "God I have no clue what I'm talking about. Please be kind."
And I'm glad that these discussions keep your mind from turning to sludge. I'll have you know that the last post was written over the course of 2 hours while constantly being interrupted by Emerson who was refusing to take his nap! :)
Greg,
Your points are well taken. I so look forward to the day when Emerson thinks I'm a god...and to the day when he realizes I'm not! What an interesting thought: that God, for our own benefit no doubt, overlooks some of our (stupid) prayers.
As for the tone, also a good point. yes, I admit it may be over the top. A couple responses to that: (1) the tone of the post had more to do with the tone of Mark Twain's story than with any political affiliation. I am just struck by how timely the message was for our present day...and for many moments in the world's history, for that matter. (2) this post wasn't a direct jab at Bush (although he had certainly has some culpability as we would all admit). Did you notice the jab at Obama (he's one of our leaders currently debating about the value of the photographs depicting torture)? If anything, its a jab at all of us as Americans, us who still refuse to believe that incidents like Abu Grahib are the exception rather than the rule. And it should particularly be convicting for Christians (as Twain's story should be) who are too quick to believe God is on America's side, that America is the New Jerusalem (the Puritans), that we have a divine right or Manifest Destiny revealed to us from the heavens, or that God has bestowed America with the wisdom to be the world police. If anything, the Iraq war should help us see just how depraved and misguided we really are. Its a plea to remember that Iraqis are human too, that Iraqi widows mourn and grieve just as much as American widows do, that Iraqi children who have lost their parents in the war are, on many if not all accounts, worse off than the children of the fallen American soldiers.
I'm satisfied by that response. Check this out: http://www.gregboyd.org/blog/more-killing-for-the-american-jesus/
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