My protest and prayer

 As a Christian Science practitioner, I regularly work with people to overcome all kinds of discord with an understanding of God as Love.  Every day I see the power of Love at work.

Prayer, spirituality, optimism, love are the weapons of our warfare and the impulse behind our tools to build, repair and restore our world.

 This is what I have learned:

Let me first say what prayer is not. Prayer is not a wish. Prayer is not a delusional quest.  Prayer is not an empty hope that relies on a chance that a god may smile on us and give us what we want.

Prayer is power. Prayer is an intimate communion with a power greater than ourselves.

Optimism is hope and hope is part of the continuum that goes from intuition, to hope to faith, to understanding to fruition which determines a new reality based on Love.

Love is not a coping mechanism.  Love is the life force of all – it gives meaning and focus to all we do.

We are all made of Love.  Stay with me here.  This is not fluff.  Consider this:  We respond to Love, yearn for it, without Love there would be a significant decrease in the number of songs sung throughout the
ages – of Love celebrated, sought after and found. We long to be known and to know others.  Why?  What is the force behind this?  Love.  
 
Why are we all impelled to get up in the morning and go about our business?  To survive.  But why survive?  What makes it worthwhile to survive?  An obligation to be there for others? A holy
curiosity to find out more – to solve problems, provide for others, to explore new solutions, to stave away death?  What is behind all of this?  It is Love.  Love is self-creative, attractive, it causes things to
grow.  Like sunshine, we need it, live by it and grow by it.  Without it, we wither and die.

So when we pray, we open ourselves to our connection to Love.  Prayer quiets the chaotic noise and fear that says life is impossible and slows us down to recognize what already is.  Like a fish in the ocean, wondering where the water is, prayer opens our eyes to a realization that Love is right where we are.  Love is already working in our lives.  It is seen in the harmony and order of the traffic, the technological genius of our communications, the compassionate smile of a stranger.  It is everywhere.

Isn't it instructive to see that what scares us the most are those things that are anti-Love?  Hunger, lack, destruction, death, conflict, deterioration, isolation, envy. The seductive attraction of greed, personal
power, perversion, self-serving material acquisition is at first not scary, but leads down a road to more conflict.  Its antidote is Love.

Did you ever wonder why we protest against hunger, lack, destruction, etc.  If these were natural to us, we would love conflict, embrace destruction, and feel at home with deterioration.  But the vast majority of us don't.  And those who do, we recognize the healing that has to go on.   We rise up against these things.  Deep down, we know that they are wrong.  Why?  Because deep down, we are spiritual beings, at
home and at peace with love.  Health and well being, harmony and productivity, connection and expression, proliferation of good and creative innovation is what we are all about.

Sages from ages teach and guide us in the ways of Love.  Is this to be so nonchalantly dismissed? And today, we have convenient access to polls that tell us of the overwhelming majority of  people who actually pray, who believe in a power of good that can and does operate in our lives.

Is this all based on delusion?  Those who point to prayer as a frivolous  fancy may want to look again at what is meaningful in their lives.  They will find the substance of their lives in their quest for and finding of, and expression of Love.

Consider what may be delusional are those things that are not based on Love.  Consider as superficial: hatred, divisiveness, and other things that melt in the humble and sincere acts of another.

Prayer?  It is the engine that moves life forward.  Atheists, agnostics, clergy, and all are swimming in the same ocean.  Prayer, as a type of communion with all that is productive and synergistic, opens our eyes to see what is glaringly obvious:  we are all connected because that is the nature of Love, and that is the nature of us.

So those optimistic remarks?  They are a way out of the morass of discord.  A little hope brings in a little light.  And even the deepest most long-lived darkness is powerless against a little light.

Now that may seem like a tidy ending.  But I want to share something more.

Read about how things have been healed in people's individual lives.  Read about how war, pollution, dishonesty in politics have been overcome.  These things happen on a regular basis.  Love is the power behind these solutions.  Love, in all its infinite expressions, is effective, continuous and lasting. Check out www.christianscience.com and www.csmonitor.com to see real life examples of this every day.

Drop the religious stereotype that says all religions are harmful and only want to convert you to their way of thinking.  Go down to the very primitive basis of spirituality: pure Love, pure Truth.  Is it possible to act those out today?  Yes.  And you don't have to be a Christian Scientist to do this.  You are already made of Love.  Solutions to bring your life into harmony are right at hand.

I'll end here.  And I hope that you have a greater sense of the possibilities that lie within your grasp.  Love and hope and optimism are power, and we are swimming in it.

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