Episode_1__Prayer_-_What_is_it_Who_are_we_praying_to_and_WhyFINAL

Anne welcomes listeners to "God for Beginners," discussing the essence of prayer as heartfelt communication with the divine or the greater mystery. She emphasizes the authenticity and diverse forms of prayer, ranging from desperation to gratitude, anger, or seeking union. Anne shares Annie Lamott's insights on prayer as a connection to truth, light, and love, regardless of our brokenness or doubts. She encourages openness, honesty, and vulnerability in prayer, highlighting the transformative power of reaching out to the light amidst darkness. Anne invites listeners to join her in exploring big questions about faith, God, existence, purpose, and the afterlife in a non-prescriptive, open-minded manner. The focus is on curiosity, wonder, and shared spiritual exploration. Hey, this is Anne and welcome to God for Beginners, Mind Expanding Conversations for the Spiritually Curious. Welcome. This is our first episode together and normally this is going to be conversations, but today I thought we would just get started by reading a little bit from a book by Annie Lamott called Three Prayers, Three Essential Prayers, Help, Thanks, and Wow. So let's start with her prelude where she talks about what is prayer. The prayer is private, even when we pray with others. It's communication from the heart to that which surpasses understanding. Let's say it's communication from one's heart to God, or if that is too triggering or ludicrous a concept for you, to the good, the force that is beyond our comprehension, but that in our pain or supplication or relief, we don't need to define or have proof or any established contact with. Let's say it's with the Greek called the really real, what lies within us beyond the scrim of our values, positions, convictions, and wounds, or let's just say it's a cry from the deep within to life or love, all with capital L. Nothing could matter less than what we call this force. Let's not get bogged down on whom or what we pray to. Let's just say prayer is communication from our hearts to the great mystery or goodness, to the animating energy of love that we sometimes are bold enough to believe in, to something unimaginably big, and it's not us, and for convenience, let's just call that God. Sometimes the first time we pray, we cry out in the deepest desperation, God help me. This is a great prayer, and when we are then at our absolutely most degraded and isolated, which means we are nice and juicy for the consequences of our best thinking, and are possibly teachable, Annie Lamont goes on to say, you might shout at the top of your lungs or whisper into your sleeve, I hate you, God, and that is prayer too, because it is real, it's truth, and maybe it's the first sincere thought you've had in months. Some of us have cavernous vibrations inside us when we communicate with God, others are more rational and less messy in our spiritual sense of reality, and our petitions and gratitude and expressions of pain or anger or desolation or praise, prayer means that in some unique way, we believe that we are invited into a relationship with someone who hears us when we speak in silence. We can pray for things, oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz? We can pray for people, please heal Martin's cancer, please help me from being such an asshole. We can pray for things that might destroy us. Prayer can be emotion and stillness and energy all at the same time. Prayer is talking to something or anything with which we seek union, even if we are bitter or insane or broken. Prayer is taking a chance that against all odds in past history, that we are loved, that we are chosen, that we do not have to get it together before we show up, that the opposite may be true, that we may not be able to get it together until after we show up in such miserable shape. Oh, Annie Lamott has such good thoughts here. And here she says, my belief is that when you're telling the truth, when you're close to God, if you say to God, I am exhausted and depressed beyond words, and I don't like you at all right now, I recoil from most people who believe in you. And that might be the most honest thing you've ever said. If you told me that God said, it's all hopeless and I don't have a clue if you exist, but I could use a hand, it would almost bring tears to my eyes, tears of pride in you for the courage it takes to get real, really, really real. It would make me want to sit next to you at the dinner table. So prayer is sometimes our real selves trying to communicate with the real, with truth, with light. It is us reaching out to be heard, hoping to be found in a light and warmth in the world instead of darkness and cold. Even mushrooms respond to light. I suppose they blink their mushroomy little eyes like the rest of us. Light reveals us to ourselves, which is not always so great if you find yourself in a big, disgusting mess, possibly even of your own creation. But like sunflowers, we turn towards the light, the light warms, and in most cases, it draws us to itself. And in this light, we can see beyond shadow and illusion to something beyond our modest receptors to what is beyond us and deep inside. As Annie Lamott says, this is all so hard to articulate because it is so real, so huge, so beyond mystery. Rumi said that all words are pointing fingers to the moon, and we think that the words are the moon. But because of the light, the light of love, the energy and the motion that have called us to prayer, bits of this deeper reality are perceivable, and little bits of it will have to do. So, as Annie says, my three prayers are variations on help, thanks, and wow, that's all I ever need besides the silence, the pain, and the pause sufficient for me to stop, close my eyes, and turn inward. Wow, thank you, Annie Lamott, for putting those words together, for stringing them together into a book, into this moment. I thank you all for tuning in. This is God for Beginners, and we're all beginners in my book. So, in this journey of God for Beginners, I'm just going to open this up to you and your questions. I'm going to track down leaders of faith and ask them the big questions. Who is God? What is God? Where do you find God? How do you know that God exists? Does God exist? What is God? How do you have a relationship with God? Why do bad things happen to people? What does, does it matter what we do here? What comes next? How do we know that anything comes next? So, I welcome you. I'm glad you're here. Thank you for joining. You know, this is for the spiritually curious. I'm not here to sell you anything. I'm not here to convince you of anything. I'm just here to ask, wonder, explore, experience, and to just invite all of us on this journey. Thanks so much. Have a great day. Cheers.