Evening
this is a late and unofficial sub for PastorDan's normal weekly prayer* diary
As most know - he's off officiating Jen's sister's wedding (and probably partaking of too much Wisconsin cheese goodness) and it appears no alternate Brothers and Sisters plans were made.
I apologize it's not in the normal format, but please enjoy the space as you normally would.
I wish us all grace, peace, clarity, passion, and justice.
Namaste
*meditate, hold in good thought
Adapted from this week's entry in my humble weekly series "
Sabbath Time" on MyLeftWing and StreetProphets
answering the question "Can Scientist Pray." John Polkinghorn says...
Yes. the ultimate reward of science is a sense of wonder. Chaos theory is teaching us that the universe is governed by an interplay order and disorder, randomness occurs within a patterned structure. (there are) cloudy spaces where the laws of nature make room for multiple possibilities. In these cloudy spaces, petitionary prayer might work.
In his book Quarks, Chaos, and Christianity, Polkinghorne writes...
We can take with absolute seriousness all that science can tell us and still believe that there is room left over for our action in the world, and for God's action, too. Of course, this does not mean that prayer is just filling in a series of blank cheques given us by a heavenly Father Christmas. This is why I could not expect all those patients I prayed for simply to recover, much as I hoped they would. Prayer is not magic. It is something much more personal, for it is an interaction between humanity and God."
that last part is important to me. I really don't think God is a vending machine with ears waiting to take orders for whatever change in the physical world we wish. I do think God is active in the world - but not by arbitrarily violating the rules the universe operates by - but rather in our actions.
Prayer is that time when we slow down and become willing to listen, to try to see a larger view, to feel where the other is coming from.
The sparks of last week - we are - whatever imagery and understanding we use - religious or not - all somehow connected.
On MLW, the outpouring of support for Boz and his wife demonstrate that to me. We, as a community, have shared in that sorrow. Certainly there have been many examples of such bonding here on DailyKos as well - I have people I now count as dear friends - most of whom I've never met - some I may never meet - and yet I am as close to them as anyone I ever will meet.
- and however we describe it - I think that our sharing here amounts to something. Call it prayer, meditation, positive energy, our just good old fashion liberal empathy and caring
It matters... what we do here.
Quarks.
Sparks.
Namaste.