Faith like *whose* child...?

If you're new to this blog, this post will probably hurt your head as it will pose an idea you may not be familiar with. You've been warned.

Ever since adopting my most recent perspective on life, everything has just made more sense than it ever did before. I no longer have to struggle with the same things I used to deal with when trying to solve life's issues. Things have just become easier to accept and understand now that the complexly abstract (and rather unfounded) anomalies have been removed from the equation.

Unfortunately the same zeal I used to have for convincing people to believe has been hard to subside when it comes to convincing people to question what is going on around them. It's also a little difficult to see people putting complete trust into something that doesn't intellectually make sense (i.e. prayer).

To read that someone has made an attempt at something, and is now awaiting the outcome while fastidiously praying and asking others to pray seems like more of a reliance on Luck than a request for a "divine intervention." They would actually have a better chance of getting their outcome if they do something to work towards the outcome they desire. This reliance on prayer gives me a visual of sitting in a windowless room, alone, rehearsing pleas in their mind - essentially thinking "please let this happen, please let this happen, please let this happen." It's the same chant we did as kids, fingers-crossed, and eyes tightly shut after we ask our parents to take us to the arcade pizza parlor, Chuck E. Cheese. The only difference between then and now, is that if it doesn't happen, we chalk it up to "oh it just wasn't God's Will" whereas a child will ask "Why not?"

Doesn't the Bible talk about seeing the world through the eyes of a child? That only one who has faith like a child will get to Heaven (Matt 18:2-6)? Surely this doesn't mean someone that "believes blindly." If you're around any child who can form a complete sentence with a cognitive thought behind it, there is no such thing as blindly believing. The path of questions quickly goes from the simple to the completely abstract and existential...all with the simple, one-word question: "Why?"

So, what if "Faith Like a Child" meant putting in the time, effort, and questions to find the real answers to problems...answers that dive to the nth degree of the problem? What if there is a nugget of truth to some of the Far Eastern religions related to reaching "Enlightenment" by obtaining a more complete understanding of the world they live in? What if the end result of those questions is coming to the conclusion that you are what you are, and the world is what it is, and that in the end the circle of life just goes on and on...that the only thing you have control over is how you live your life, and nothing else. What if Heaven and Happiness is finally letting go of everything except that which you're responsible for, so that when your life is over, you have reached the realization that this is inevitable, and you've done all you can with what you can - and are able to go in peace?

I don't know the precise answer to these questions, nor do I know if anyone else actually does. I do know one thing though, and that is the less I have worried about how other people act, and the more I try to understand my own personality and thought processes, the less stress my life has and the faster my time flies by.

For me, prayer was never a big part of my life. There were phases during which I would go through the motions (before meals, at church, prior to reading my Bible), but never would I find myself praying for help, or things, or anything else that I could take personal responsibility in achieving myself. I also never asked others to pray for anything related to me, as prayer requests (especially requests made by proxy for third-parties) seemed more like gossip than a plea for help. And even those that were pleas for help were only prayed for in the capacity of "Lord, you've heard all these things mentioned here today...." Really? Then why even bother bringing them up?

We were taught in Church to turn everything over to God through prayer, but that always seemed burdensome and weak to me - especially when it was taken to the extreme during prayer requests for the stupidest stuff. "No, I'm sorry, I will not pray for your family member to change his mind about something...I will not ask God to override his free-will to meet your whims and limited understanding of how this experience is going to redirect his life's path."

The only benefit I can see from prayer is to turn over something that is ailing your mind and causing you to worry and stress. It's the same benefit that Forgiveness brings, except the issue is internal, and not against somebody else. Sometimes people need an outlet to vent their stress and talk it over. Mine is a blog, for others it's a friend, and for still others it could be prayer.

My concern is not that people pray, but that they let it become the sole decision making engine in their life. It would be akin to me posting a question on my blog with an expectation of an answer or request for an item at the end...and then I sit back and wait for comments or for someone to send me the requested item. And if I don't get them, I assume the answer is "No"...

...when in reality no one read the post at all.