Over the course of a week's time, the spouse of one of JB's coworkers unexpectedly and suddenly passed away. At my workplace, a coworker's mother passed away following heart surgery. A few days later, I learned that the 10-year-old nephew of our boss had been involved in a horrible car accident and had been taken to the hospital in critical condition.
This last piece of news, making the it third piece of very bad news in a week's time, was delivered by the boss's wife, who also works for the company. She was distraught, as you'd imagine any family member would feel about her nephew. I told her, in all sincerity, that for whatever she thought thoughts and prayers were worth, she'd have JB's and mine. I told her I didn't mean that to sound cliché.
Oh, those despicable thoughts and prayers. Do a Google search for images related to "thoughts and prayers" (I did while working on this post, and I triple-dog dare you to do the same), and you'll see just what people out there in the world think thoughts and prayers are really worth, which is not very much. In fact, one of the most offensive things you can do these days, apparently, is to send "thoughts and prayers" when any kind of tragedy occurs. The Thought Police make sure of this all over social media.
This sort of judgment from the Thought Police, of course, is based on two basic suppositions: (1) that those who send thoughts and prayers do so independent of any sort of action or effort, what we in Christianity would call faith without works; and (2) that if thoughts and prayers actually worked, then God would drop whatever He's doing somewhere in the Earth or out in the universe and would personally intervene to stop gun violence, natural disasters, and/or any other kind of senseless tragedy, as if thoughts and prayers magically controlled the Supreme Being and His will for all mankind.
Thoughts and prayers are deemed to be either insulting or worthless, or both.
I beg to differ. Because thoughts and prayers, sometimes, are all we have. When we hear of tragedies, it's often all we can offer. And I do not believe in a God on whom thoughts and prayers fall on deaf ears. On rare occasions, He does intervene. But most of the time, He does not, because (1) it would thwart this little thing He gave us called free agency; (2) His judgments will come in a later day, and they will be just on the unrepentant and merciful toward those who call on His name; and (3) oftentimes, we must be the answers to prayer, and this often comes through the promptings of the Spirit.
I can't begin to count the number of times other people have been God's answer to my prayers. I like to think that I've been prompted by the Spirit, on more than one occasion, and during times when I've been worthy to hear His voice, to do something for someone that may have made a difference to that person. And when I've offered prayers that, at times, at first seemed to fall on deaf ears, I've simultaneously been given trials that have made me more empathetic or sympathetic, more patient, and more understanding of the burdens others bear.
When I look at things from that perspective, not a single thought and prayer has ever been wasted or worthless.
When tragedies aren't too far from us that we can do something to help, well, I also believe in a God who expects us to pray to Him as if everything depended upon Him while also working as if everything depended upon ourselves. If we can donate time and/or money to a worthy cause, I believe He expects us to do so. If we are prompted to do something kind for someone in need, I believe we should. No act of kindness is ever wasted, either.
If we're talking guns, I believe we won't survive as a nation without both prayer and action. I pray for a country that is going downhill morally, in which the disintegration of the family is, as the prophets have forewarned, bringing about calamities. I also believe that measures should be taken to keep guns from the hands of those who should not have them while also believing that criminals don't follow laws and a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun. Both schools of thought are not mutually exclusive. But perhaps that is a conversation best had another time.
We can talk about it over pizza. Your treat!
