Tonight I prayed for Ukraine.  

I am writing this Wednesday evening following the Prayer Vigil for Ukraine, hosted by seven pastors and churches in the Barrington area.  Pastors from each congregation took turns offering prayers for Ukraine, Russia, refugees, parents and children, and especially for God’s peace to prevail.  I am not sure why, but for some reason my mind began to wonder, “why?”  Why do we pray?  

Surely there is no wrong reason to pray, and certainly no wrong way to do it either.  Perhaps the “why” has as many answers as it does the number of people doing the praying.  And yet I would like to take a little space here tonight to offer a few thoughts that have helped me and guided my own prayer life through the years.  Prayer bubbles up from my heart when I begin to think about the one to whom I am praying: God, the creator of all, the redeemer of all, and the re-animator of all things.  I believe a couple of things about this Triune God: God loves so much that God’s very being is love.  God is intimately aware of us and everything that is going on.  And God wants deeply to connect with us- with all of us- whom God has created in the divine image.  

I am certain, then, that this God already knows what I am about to pray.  I am also confident that this omniscient and benevolent creator already knows the best thing that could happen in my life and the life of others as I lift it up in prayer.  And I also know of my own limitations, in both the ability to see what might be best, and my own brokenness and imperfect way of loving when compared to God.  So why pray when God already knows, and is already working on the best plan possible for any given situation?  

Because prayer changes me.  Prayer takes my deepest concerns and my deepest fears, and begins to articulate hope.  Prayer connects me to a bigger, divine purpose even if I cannot see it clearly or fully.  Because God delights in any prayer, simply because we are praying it, like a loving parent delights in seeing the artwork of their child (even if it really is not that good).  When I pray, while I may occasionally ask for a specific outcome or specific thing, most of the time prayer is me learning to trust in God more fully in any particular situation that is troubling me, or is harmful to someone.  I remind myself that praying to change an outcome is not my goal, but prayer to align myself with the one who is already working to redeem and recreate the world is the real outcome.  And at the end of every prayer, whether spoken aloud or held silently in my heart, is, “Thy will be done.”  Not my will.  
Perhaps one of prayer’s greatest gifts is a loving reminder that God is God, and I am not, and I am opening myself up to be a part of God’s Kingdom and work in the world and in the hearts of God’s children.  

Tonight, we prayed for Ukraine.  Not because a few dozen people gathering in Barrington, IL, can change the course of a war on the other side of the world, but because we joined together with God who is already diligently working to warm the hearts of those perpetuating violence, and also comforting and sustaining the victims who are weary and heavy laden.  Because prayer takes our deepest hope, hope that humankind can indeed overcome its love of violence and greed and become better, and articulates it together with others uniting us with something older and bigger than we are: we call it praying to God.  

Let us pray to the Lord.  
Thanks be to God. 

Jesse+