Wednesdays in the World - Death Rays and Prayer

Face it. Lasers are cool. Everyone, at some point in their lives has held out their hand with their pointer finger towards a target and their thumb skyward and fired a beam of imaginary energy complete with sound effects. (My personal sound effect was a sort "chzew" sound).

Well, the future is here people. According to CNN, the military has a ray gun. Now, never mind the fact that it's basically a glorified microwave oven strapped to a metal dish glued to a hummer. It's a RAY GUN. It can make you feel like you're going to CATCH ON FIRE. It works from 5 FOOTBALL FIELDS AWAY. How can this not fullfill every 9-year old boys greatest desires?

Now, here's the deal - it's non-lethal. That's right - the army makes a ray gun and then they go and make it non-lethal. I understand about the value of human life and all, but seriously - did God make Payton Manning and leave off his throwing arm? It's a gun that shoots beams of energy from a hummer! By sheer principal it should at least be able to knock cans off a fence post! Let alone melt some sort of hole though a bank vault door or breach the space time continuum and warp us somewhere. I mean really? A hummer mounted ray gun that can't kill anyone.....

My prayers lately are non-lethal, if you will. They are benign beams to God that say, "I know you can do it, God. Your will be done." But deep down they really mean, "I'm expecting nothing, because then I won't be let down." I am a ray gun that can't kill.

See, God invented this super huge weapon from the future - it's called prayer. It givens us a direct beam of holy spirit right to our target. It'll go through walls, armor, bank vault doors, etc. But most of the time, I use it like a garden hose. I'm going to sprinkle some prayer here and there and hope that something grows. But the real idea behind prayer, I think, is that God has given us direct access to His power and wisdom. Prayer should almost be dangerous. Like "Watch where you point that thing" dangerous. Like "You'll put someone's eye out" dangerous.

I never think of prayer that way. The Bible's pretty clear about prayer. People in the Bible prayed some dangerous stuff. David prayed in Psalm 68 that God would crush His enemies. He literally prays that they be blown away like wax before a fire. Seriously. David prays for God to Ray Gun (the cool lethal kind) His enemies. I don't pray like that. My prayers are non-lethal.

Now, I'm not saying that we should all pray for bad things to happen to those we think God opposes. I'm saying we should pray with the knowledge that prayer is a serious weapon. It's the A-Bomb of the spiritual world. And 2 things happen with A-Bombs: 1) A small demonstration of their power is enough to convince people of their potency. and 2) No one casually tosses one around.

So I'm thinking about that this week. And I'm thinking that I should pray expectantly. And I'm thinking that maybe my prayers mean more than I think they do. And maybe I should pray with a target in mind and hope to see a small demonstration of power. Hopefully it'll sound like "chzew! chzew!"