Word: prayerfulness
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Stay Calm, Says God All four interviewees said the very act of prayer (appropriately) transfers some anxiety onto the divinity. "The prayer itself is a form of power," says Ali. "We are not frustrated or losing our temper or losing our dignity or feeling lost, because we are close to God." Philip Yancey, the author of numerous Evangelical Christian books, including most recently Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?, cites Psalm 46, a prayer listing a number of catastrophes but concluding, "Be still and know that I am God." Addressing God, Yancey says, allows us to "bring our fears...
...considering the economic crisis, Nevins suggets that the very equanimity achieved through prayer may actually help solve the concrete problem. He says that prayer-induced calm could affect the economic spiral in a way similar to the case of a serious illness in which a miracle cure may not be in the offing, but "doctors have observed that people who have hope are able to have a better quality of life and better outcome in their healing." Says Nevins: "If people stampede and panic and liquidate their assets, then we'll all be in worse shape. So maintaining some perspective...
Widening Your Prayer Calm can act as a springboard to the most expansive kind of prayer. Yancey uses the model of Jesus, who prayed in the garden Gethsemane immediately before his trial and crucifixion. He notes that Jesus' first statement is "Let this cup pass from me." Observes Yancey: "He's basically saying, 'Get me out of this!' " Yet he quickly moves into a stage of calm. "By the end of the night, he's the calmest person there. He's told God, 'If this cannot pass away except I drink it, thy will be done.' " The final stage...
...others accepted Yancey's Christology, but they all acknowledged prayer's expansion into compassion. Nevins points out that the recurring refrain on the Day of Atonement, when Jews itemize their sins, is that "repentance, prayer and charity can annul" God's harshest judgment. Charity, he notes, can come even from those hit hard by economic blight: "There's a belief that charity from a poor person might be more meaningful than a grand gesture from the wealthy." Imam Ali cites a hadith (a saying of the Muslim prophet) in which Mohammed, in the face of persecution, prays to God, both...
...that has application in this situation," Ali continues. "We must reflect that our own shortcomings have played a role: our greed; that we don't have social awareness; that the way we see life is so egotistical." And in the face of this humbling realization, prayer enables us to realize that "we have acceptance. We have compassion. We have love...