Short answer: "No."

I recently overheard the following question asked: "Do you believe that you can pray hard enough that you can change what God has planned?" It’s a really good question, and cuts to the core of beliefs, both in God and in the effectiveness of prayer.

Put shortly, if God is omnipotent and all-loving, then why does tragedy exist in the world? Either He CAN’T change the evil or he CHOOSES not to change the evil, neither of which is a particularly heart-warming proposition. My dad would suggest that we are trying to put human terms around a divine being, and that we can’t really do that. And, ultimately, I think that makes sense. It’s part of the divine mystery of faith. But, as humans, we are given this intellectual capacity, and it certainly can recognize this logical challenge.

In a Christian philosophy class in college, I became pretty comfortable with the concept that God has the capacity to change tragedy or evil in the world, but realizes that to do so would cause a great deal more damage to the world and to his children because interfering with tragedy would inherently cause a disruption in the natural laws He has established, but to which He is not beholden (time, cause-and-effect, and gravity, for example).

"God’s planning" also raises the question of whether He knows what will come in the future. When I bring this up with my wife, she always likes to remind me that – if time is a line – we can only see one point on the line at a time. God sees the whole line. What we perceive as eternity, He can perceive as the present moment. So, I have not doubt that He knows what will come of us and of all of His kingdom. This topic also makes me think of one of the great theological conversations ever had. It was in 11th grade on the football practice field. Kelly Wilson, our quarterback, was asserting that God knew all that was to happen and that it was all preordained. Dave Greenfield, one of our running backs, wanted to know – if that was the case – why we should practice. A fair question. Then and now, I believed and believe that God includes our human abilities and weaknesses in his grand image. He knows what we are capable of, what we will do, and where we will fall.

But, back to the original question – how can prayer affect all of this? I don’t believe we startle or surprise God with our prayers – our praises or our entreaties. Again, our spiritual desires and requests are included in his grand image. By fervently praying, we are fulfilling what He has always known we would do. We are not changing the future, but fitting ourselves into the system that God has known. We have the choice to act – to pray, to think, to believe – as we want to, but God knows and has always know what we will choose.

On a final note, I have always found difficulty (even in these post-Jabez days) in praying for what I want. I don’t mean that "I think it’s wrong to pray for a new car," but rather that even when praying for others ("heal my Mom," "soften my co-worker’s heart") I am asking God to change his plan. But I’m not. My asking is merely fitting into the plan that God has known. Although I need to continue to embrace my preferred prayer: "God, help me accept your will," I also need to realize that a portion of that will is for me to let God know where my heart and my heart’s desire is.

More on politics later.