What do you pray for

Consoling a crying child

Last week, my kid fell ill. It was a viral fever with cold. Due to the intense cold, she was struggling to breathe and had ear pain. We were constantly clearing up the nasal passage and helping her with breathing. However, she was helpless with ear pain. As per the pediatrician’s instructions, we gave her a tonic to relieve her ear pain. The medicine is not a magic potion to heal instantaneously; it was slow process. Her body takes time to act on it.

We, as parents, were trying everything to console her and distract her from the pain. The attempts were futile. She kept on crying, holding her ear. I took her to the Pooja Room, and I asked her to pray to God. I helped her build sentences, and we were more like complaining than actually praying. After the prayer session, whenever she cried out of pain, we reminded her of the prayer session we had and promised that God would take care of the pain.

Miracles do happen

My kid started ignoring the pain and even said that God would take care of it. Gradually, we were able to get her involved in other activities, and she started ignoring the pain. After an hour or so, she was no longer holding her ear. Seeing her hands away from the ear, we asked her about the pain. It was a risk. If she had pain and had forgotten it momentarily, she would start screaming again. But we were lucky this time around. She acknowledged that the pain had vanished. She said on her own that God had fixed her ears.

What my kid believes in

Prayer, here, acted as a tool to forget the pain she was going through.

She is a kid, and she believes a variety of things. For her, a dove and a crow are the same—a pura. She asks mosquitoes not to bite her. Also gets frightened when a lizard appears. She has caught a fly twice (till now). She hides her arm under her tees and says it has vanished. And so, she believes in God as an entity and thinks it will relieve her of the pain.

While treating her ear pain, we indoctrinated her into religious beliefs.

The workings of Faith & Belief system

In the future, if someone says the god is an imaginary entity, formed by us to answer something beyond our comprehension, she most likely won’t buy it. She may reason that the god has helped her in the toughest of times, so it should exist.

Isn’t it how we all began our religious journey?

Somewhere in the past, you must have prayed for something like

• The uncle visiting you must get your favorite toy or
• The doctor treating you for illness shouldn’t use a syringe on you or
• The strict teacher shouldn’t ask about the homework that you didn’t do.

And God has fulfilled it, and you too have started believing it.

These are the result of Selection bias.

Selection bias is the bias introduced by the selection of data for analysis in such a way that proper randomization is not achieved, thereby failing to ensure that the sample obtained is representative of the population intended to be analyzed. - Wikipedia on Selection bias.

There could be multiple instances where your prayers are not answered. We tend to forget them. With an increasing surface area of luck, the law of averages improves, and we get what we prayed for. Gradually, we get opinionated about the power of God.

Things we pray for

The way we pray to God matters. If we consider it to be omnipotent, there shouldn’t be any request/prayer at all. We should simply thank it for what it gave you. What is the point in asking for something that you don’t deserve and the all-knowing, omnipotent God dismisses?

Well, if you realize God is omnipotent and start thanking him, will it make any impact? Imagine you’re walking in the park, overlooking kids playing nearby. During the play, the ball came into your path, and a kid was running in to pick it up. If you threw the ball towards him. Now, do you expect gratitude from him? Even if he thanks you, it’s not going to make any changes for you. Conversely, you watch the ball roll in front of you, and the kid is running in to pick it up. The kid won’t mind if you simply walk away without helping.

In the same hypothetical scenario, imagine the kid running in and screaming at you to throw the ball to him. But you ignored his call and walked by. Now, probably the kid employs some abusive words. However, being an elder and having seen many things in life, you simply walk away, minding your own business.

Now, God is simply doing its business. Will that make any difference whether you thank it or not? Most probably no.

Conversely, you prayed for something, and God did exactly the opposite of what you wished for. Will it bother him if you use some abusive words? According to religious texts, God is in existence for 1000s of years. With that boat-load of experience, there is 0 chance of him getting offended.

Conclusion

Seeing the above scenarios, wishing for something in your prayer means nothing the Almighty. It only shows the gap between your wants and reality is huge and needs God’s help to fill it.

When you pray during the tought times, it gives a sense of hope that someone or something will help you out of the tough situation you’re in. Hope is good thing to have.

Having said that, your ability to show gratitude and thank him in the prayers prove that you have a positive mindset. Positive mindset is what makes one successful or not. It’s necessary to water it with good habits and grow it into a fruit-bearing tree.