Last week I shared the story of seeing a large branch fall from a tree as the result of accumulated snowfall. I thought how one last snowflake had made that happen, and imagined ways in which prayers may be like snowflakes. I shared a story about how my friend and mentor Hank had recovered from cancer using a variety of methods, including prayer. Other stories came to mind – three of which I am sharing in this post.
In the 1990s, UCSB had an exciting women’s basketball team. Many of us from my congregation began attending games. One season, a young woman who played center was invited to speak at our morning worship service about her faith. The night before, UCSB had won a dramatic game against the University of Hawaii. When she arrived, we invited her to the pulpit. She said a few words of introduction, then asked if there were any questions. Someone asked if she had prayed at all during the previous night’s game. She said she did at halftime. She was asked if she had prayed that her team would win. No, she said, she never prays for that. She just prayed that she would be able to do her best.
I once attended an interspiritual retreat at La Casa de Maria as part of an Earth Day weekend. One of the speakers was a Native American elder from a local tribe. He described ways in which his tradition was integrated with nature. One example was a custom that was part of fall prayer ceremonies. They asked the Creator to be with them when they were deer hunting. They prayed they would be led to target deer which were unlikely to survive the winter, leaving untouched members of the herd capable of living a longer life.
Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen was a professor of Integrative Medicine at UCSF Medical School and the author of best sellers on the role of spirituality and medicine. I treasured her books and heard her speak in person twice. One of her stories involved a case in which she had visited a patient in the hospital and carefully studied his chart. She agreed with the treatment plan in place. But she wondered if there was another approach. She decided to take a walk through the hospital to the chapel. She arrived at the chapel and sat in silence. An unexpected idea came to her. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense medically. She went back and consulted with her team. They changed the treatment plan, which extended the patient’s life.
In each of these stories, the person was not praying for a specific event to miraculously occur. They were not praying for something as dramatic as a large branch falling from a tree, or a mountain moving, or a bone mending instantly. They were seeking something more subtle. They were praying that their thoughts and actions might align with a higher purpose.
Some will say that these stories do not need spiritual beliefs to support or explain them. They are simply examples of positive or creative thinking. But the people telling these stories believed that there are forces and energies beyond our ordinary understanding that are available to us if we seek them. Sometimes the “still, small voice” will direct us to outcomes that fulfill our desires. But sometimes the guidance we receive will lead us in other directions. We may be prompted to follow a more challenging path than the one we are on. We may consider giving something up that we’ve held dear. We may feel prompted to face a difficult problem we’d rather avoid, or to take on a new responsibility. So it’s not always about making life easier. It’s about making life better by doing the right thing.
If your eyes are closed and a snowflake lands on your cheek, it won’t knock you off balance. But you will feel it as it melts and becomes a drop of water. Whether you gently touch it with your finger or let it run down your cheek, you are aware of its presence; its moisture becomes part of you. You didn’t create the snowflake or see where it came from. But it reminds you there is something more in your life than just you. There are subtle forces at play, and we are invited to be part of them. We are blessed in such moments. We can be grateful.
Steve Jacobsen, Ed.D 