by Lynda Wolf

I have prayed all my life. I don’t recall how this began. Perhaps I was just an anxious child searching for security. However, as a teenager riding my bike out on the prairie in the evening, I recall my young spirit feeling it would burst with joy as I was surrounded by the beauty that surrounded me at sunset. I felt I was meeting God the Creator as I experienced the power of the landscape. I attribute my personal response to God from that time.

A practice of daily prayer developed during my times of illness, divorce, single parenthood, financial distress, workplace conflict. I was remarkably led through these times – healing came, doors opened, children grew, I became wiser. I attributed all of this to God’s grace and as a response to prayer.

As my life emerged from the demands of the work, parenting and caregiving, I gradually began praying for the wider world. I had always been a news junkie and I found myself responding in prayer to events on the news. It occurred to me that I could pray for anything or anyone. No issue, country, or event was too large for my prayers. I recognize the insignificance of my life in God’s great scheme of things. It accounts for less than a millisecond in God’s plan. But in that millisecond, my praying need observe no limits.

My praying is stimulated by reading Economist, the Globe and Mail, the Winnipeg Free Press, the Anglican Journal, Maclean’s magazine – there is an atlas beside my Bible. I can pray for the families of murdered and missing women, for the victims of rape, abuse, and other horrific traumas, for the survivors of residential schools, for all children in care. I can pray for all types of health service, but especially for end-of-life care and loving care for those experiencing dementia. I can pray for all countries at war, for all who flee war, for those imprisoned or held captive. I can pray for all who suffer from terrorism and all children victimized and abandoned, for women mutilated and enslaved. There is no limit to what I can pray for. I read and hear the news and then, instead of despairing, turn to God. Jesus taught us, “Thy Kingdom come”, and so do I pray. I pray in hope.

Does this praying do any good? I believe so. How does this work? I have no idea. Am I naïve, lacking the ability to think critically? I don’t think so. I do know this: from now until I meet God, I will continue to bring the world to God in prayer. Why not? It’s my millisecond.