The Mathematics of Prayer
I’m sitting in Babb’s Coffee House in Jamestown as I write this email. I have a mango Italian soda next to me and, not coincidently, I just found out I don’t like mango Italian sodas. The place is a cool and trendy establishment and is abuzz with groups of people eating their lunches, others like me working on their computers and tablets, and of course lots of University of Jamestown students, despite the academic year not starting for a few weeks. There are also the employees working at breakneck speed to fill orders. There is the small young lady who yells out “Tom” or “Julie” or “Samantha” at a volume that I imagine carries on the air currents and eventually settles in Bismarck or Fargo. So, what does this have to do with prayer, you might ask?
Many years ago in college I was inundated by mathematics, and I wasn’t a big fan. I actually sort of liked calculus, but disliked algebra with a passion. Interestingly, it was the exact opposite for my wife Ruth – she liked algebra and hated calculus. Regardless of one’s affection or distaste for math, you have to admit that it is immensely helpful in understanding the world around us and has everyday applications in more ways than you can count. But math and prayer? Stay with me.
Back to the coffee shop. What I see is a multitude of people living their own lives, yet intricately connected to one another. There is a relationship between me and the employee who took my order, with the young lady who yelled my name, the toddler in the booth in front of me who keeps turning around and smiling at me, and on it goes. It’s a living organism in many ways. In a perfect world you could describe all these relationships perhaps using algebra or calculus, but the formulas would be pretty intractable. However, the most important mathematical concept about prayer is really simpler than that.
What happens mathematically when I connect with 3 people in that coffee shop, each of them connects with 3+ friends, and so on? You get exponential growth. And that’s how prayer by a body of believers works.
When I ask for prayer from my family for NDFA, my three other family members pray. They also then often ask for prayer from their friends, partners in prayer groups, fellow church members, or other Christians they know. I can see this picture in my head of all these nodes connecting to each other and creating a larger and larger canvas of prayer. And it’s a beautiful thing.
The power of one person praying can be an incredible thing – I in no way mean to understate its importance. However, the power of hundreds or thousands of people praying is almost beyond comprehension. We have been given an unbelievable gift to talk with our Heavenly Father, but I believe we often undervalue it.
When we were in the process of starting NDFALA, the entity that does much of our legislative work, I was concerned about raising enough donations for the demands of the coming legislative session and I asked for prayer. A good friend of mine and pastor gave me this advice. He said, “NDFALA doesn’t need prayer just to raise this money, but needs prayer as its foundation”. I took his wise words to heart and try to remember them during our busy workdays.
We at NDFA have truly felt called to embrace and focus on prayer’s importance in all our lives, and so we have decided to host a one-day prayer conference in September. It will highlight prayer for our families, education, government, churches, and the business community, and it will be held at the Heritage Center on September 21. We will email you more information and how to get tickets soon.
There is no substitute for prayer in a Christian’s life. We ask you to make it a priority and to remember the mathematics of prayer – it is much larger than just you. Who knows, with enough prayer I might even learn to like mango Italian sodas, although that might take a lot of prayer.