PRAYER TRAVELS ON GOD'S INTERNET

God Only Knows How It Works

by Jerry Murley

I've started thinking of prayer as working like little packets, similar to those that travel the planet's Internet in millions of trillions with our "important" daily information. As I pray, each thought-feeling compound is transmitted individually or in small bundles rather than as one grand opus from my being.

As these packets traverse the universe they may be intercepted and read by hackers along the way. Let's think of those hackers as like-minded helpers of God. I tend to think of those seeker-helpers as being the ones who in part translate God's response. Just by being servants of God they exact His will and He can spend more quality time on other stuff like presiding over how His Internet works.

Let me be more concrete. Say I pray for the health and welfare of a nephew or niece, which I do in multiples daily. That prayer might be intercepted by a friend, mentor, employer or parent of that nephew or niece, who also wishes them well and helps fulfill my prayer. Or, if I am so bold as to act on my prayers, the parent or nephew or niece, see my prayers in my actions and feel more kindly and beneficent toward themselves and one another and my prayer is answered. That God is a clever fellow; this is such an efficent system.

Now hold on to your seat a minute because this will blow your natural preconception of self. What if my prayers or some part of them aren't really my "original" prayers, mine-only, in the first place? Maybe my prayers are built on prayer packets lodged in one of God's network routers, me.

In the old days, we used to think that we needed a certified religion guide to tell us how to pray and what to pray for. Our comprehension of God's network was just in its infancy and there just weren't as many points of entry. Now those captains of religion tend to just muddle things and concentrate spiritual thought and prayer on a narrow range of possiblities, such as "please God let my team win." That just ain't how it works effectively.

Not long ago I heard a news report about a notorious murderer who was denied parole in California. He said that he didn't care, because he still a lot of work to do on his Web pages. (That physical Web is our new prison solitary confinement.) After a recent serious health issue, I fully understand what he meant and find it hilarious. I am really not ready for death or debilitation because I have a lot of work to do on my Web site. Not my physical Web site mind you – on the one that goes on God's network.