Praying For Maine: Do Prayers Work?
Praying for Maine? I think it can at least help. I’ll explain.
As we close the week with heartache and pain, thanks to another senseless shooting, it’s especially close to home, being in Maine. Too close. If you want to know the story, all you have to do is look down at your phone and you will be deluged with sadness, with the reports of the shooter, still at large, with families of lost loved ones coping, trying to make sense of this. We cannot make sense of it.
Is it A Gun Problem, A Mental Illness Problem?
I won’t take this platform to debate this long debated issue. Many will say it’s a gun problem. On the other side many will say that, states with the toughest gun laws experience as much or more gun violence than states with lesser laws. Some say in rural areas, with less law enforcement available, families must protect themselves with responsible gun ownership.
Many argue that these constant shooting events, can now be pointed to mental illness. In this recent shooting, it is reported that family members of the shooter warned police of increased signs of mental illness. According to NBC News:
The family of the Army reservist accused of fatally shooting more than a dozen people in Lewiston, Maine, alerted police and military officials that he was experiencing an “acute” mental health episode before the Wednesday night massacre, his sister-in-law said.
The accused shooter, Robert Card, a firearms instructor, after being fitted for a new hearing aid, claimed to his family that he started “hearing voices accusing him of bad things.” This information alarmed the family, who claimed they alerted police and military.
Do Thoughts and Prayers Work?
When we hear the phrase Thoughts and Prayers, we see a lot of pushback these days, understandably. People feel that just saying that phrase, isn’t enough, as more action is needed, not just words. But are they just words?
Personally, I think praying, is an actual conversation that takes place between ourselves, and our higher self, the higher power, that’s within us. I believe that higher power is simply, God. Now, for those that are not so religious, or are not believers, let’s call it another name.
What Do We Call This Power?
We can call it Universal Power, Jesus, Buddha, Moses, science or what ever that ENERGY is, that powers all around us, and IN us. But we can’t argue, that it must be something.
What do you call that feeling of watching those videos of a military vet coming home, surprising his high school child at a basketball game. Or when we see a dog reunited with their owner when they return home after a military deployment? How about the video of the infant, hearing her Mom for the first time, after getting ear implants. You can see the little infant baby cry, happy tears at the voice of her loving Mom.
This power I am talking about, could it be LOVE?
It is the same power, that starts the day our hearts begin to beat, until the day we transition. The same power that powers the sun forever, and same sun power that’s in our bodies known as Vitamin D. How is it that the sun is 93 million miles away, but we can feel its heat on our face? Add to that, how is it that we, the planet is hurling through space at 67,000 miles per hour, yet, we feel nothing?
I feel that when we are praying for Maine, or for any prayers, they are not just words. When we pray, we tap into this very same energy, and transfer it to others that need it.
Praying for Maine, is not just words. It’s much much more. It’s an energy that we are sending to those that need it most, that will begin the process of healing, growth and solutions.
To me, that’s an Amen. Thank you for reading.
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