Eh - Not Sure Where To Begin.

[Fr. Antony Maria OSB]

Before I begin, I'd like to also say that I can be very verbose, so please bear with me and my long explanations, lol!

For me, prayer is something I hold to very dearly, in large part for two reasons: 1)it has gotten me through an extremely difficult time in my life, and 2)I had a class on prayer this past year which has really broadened my understanding and appreciation for it and for God in general. With this in mind, I'll start from your first question:
[quote]If he HAS a plan already set, and seems to act according to that plan regardless of what we pray, why do we bother to pray?[/quote]
The first thing that needs to be addressed here is that God does not have a plan already set. We need to keep in mind that God knows EVERYTHING: not just what happened, what is happening, and what will happen, but also what could have happened in the past, what could be happening in the present, and what could happen in the future. He knows the outcome of every single decision that everyone on this earth could possibly make at any moment of their lives: just because He knows what is going to happen doesn't mean that He is making it happen. The same can be said of a young child having ice cream for the first time. Someone older knows that if you eat too much ice cream too fast, you'll get a brain freeze, but a young child isn't going to know that, so if they like the ice cream and eat a lot of it, the brain freeze will happen. The older person knew that it would happen if the correct criteria were in place, but did not necessarially will it to happen. It's the same with God, except on a much grander scale.

So, why do we bother to pray? Others have also said this, so I am just repeating in my own words what has already been said in large part. Prayer is more than just intercessory. In its simplest form, prayer is conversation with God. No ifs, ands, or buts, prayer is conversation with God. A very holy monk I know told me once that the purest form of prayer is when a person is just sitting in God's Presence, God gazing at the person and the person gazing at God. The simple act of being in each other's presence. So, what is the purpose of conversation? To get to know someone better. How does one get to the point where just sitting in someone else's presence is comforting and no words need to pass between the two? Many deep conversations where each person learns more and more about the other until they each know as much as they can about each other. But God already knows all about us, so why do we need to pray? Because in a lot of ways, we come to know more about ourselves in prayer than we can do otherwise. (Same as in when we learn about ourselves while a certain situation is happening or while we're talking about something with someone else than if we were merely speculating on something by ourselves: we tend to miss some parts of the whole picture.)

So, this seems to be kind of controlling (echoing what you asked later on): God makes us so that we don't see the whole picture, but if we pray we can get a better view of it. Now we come to God being the Father. A child doesn't know as much as his/her parents do, so he/she asks questions, talks to them and others, and gets a better understanding of what is happening around them, both immediately and in the world. The same with God. We don't know as much as God, but here is the catch in the analogy: God knows us better than we know ourselves, so in talking to God, as a child talks to their parents, instead of getting to know more about our surrounding, etc. (and that could happen, as well, I'm not saying it can't or won't), we get to know ourselves better. But also beyond this, as I mentioned above, God knows who we have the POTENTIAL to be, and being omni-benevolent He wants us to become the epitomy of our potential. Does this mean we will attain it? No, because free will factors in, and we also have to ask if God simply made us the epitomy of our potential, would that really be who we are? Isn't the journey, the forming of who we are by ourselves, really what makes us individuals? God wants us to be ourselves, be individuals, and we have to keep in mind that we are made in His Image and Likeness, so in order to be ourselves free will is necessary, but by drawing closer and closer to God we will become more like Him because that is how we are created to be.

Moving on to the second part of your first post, with genocide, starvation, etc., but people still asking God for small things in comparison to that and allowing that to happen. Part of this question gets into the problem of evil (why would an omni-benevolent, all powerful God allow such evils as genocide, starvation, etc. to happen?). For people asking God for things such as strength in difficult times, we need to keep in mind that free will is taking place here. If you asked a friend to bring a salad to a party you were hosting and your friend complied, would you refuse to take their salad when they brought it, saying that you wanted to do everything for the party yourself? Of course not! You would thank your friend for bringing the salad and get on with the party. It's the same with asking God for something. Let's say you ask God for strength in a difficult time of your life. If the person is open to receiving that strength for which they asked, it would not be an infringement of their free will, but instead the fulfillment of it.

So, why do terrible things still happen in the world with people asking for them to stop all of the time? Why does God help individuals but not entire situations? Part of the answer would again be that the people committing the terrible crimes have free will which God won't infringe upon. For natural disasters we would go back to God follows the laws He has set down: He doesn't actively will for tsunamis to destroy whole cities and kill thousands of people, but He won't break the laws of nature, which He put into place, to stop that. The difference between active and passive will. I know there are still a lot of potential questions that arise out of that, but at some point it all comes down to we need to have faith that God will provide and He will help where He is needed in His own time. It may not make any sense to us, but God knows what He is doing.

I hope this helps out somewhat and doesn't just add to the confusion.

Joe

[BlueRose]

[quote name='rkwright' post='1595583' date='Jul 8 2008, 10:25 PM']Just wondering... have you tried medication?

From the wiki page...

Treatment

Clonazepam is highly effective in the treatment of sleep paralysis.[13] The initial dose is 0.5 mg at bedtime, while an increase to 1 mg per night might be necessary to maintain potency.[/quote]

Wow. No, I haven't. I've done some research on my own and have yet to read anything about treatment.

It was bad for about two years, but seems to have some correlation to the stress I'm under. If I'm really bothered by something in my daily life and have been for more than a few days, chances are I'll have an "episode." Thankfully, it's no longer to the level that it was at a few years ago. I thank you for this information, though. It's good to know that it's not a malady that I have to learn to live with (if it becomes a problem again).

[BlueRose]

[quote name='Lil Red' post='1595634' date='Jul 8 2008, 11:14 PM']+J.M.J.+
as she stated, she was here waaaayyy back at almost the beginning of phatmass, and not been back since. d.USt just hasn't changed her status yet. [/quote]

Yes, exactly. I'm from way back when. I think my member number is 31. I myself tried to change the Church Militant status because I realized how contradictory it was to my current purpose here!

I'm really pleased at how helpful and nice everyone has been. I'm at a new juncture in life - getting married in a few months, and also just recently lost my best friend - so I'm in a "searching" phase, I suppose, as everything is shifting into new places. It has been nice to bounce ideas off you guys and not feel preached at or rejected.

[b]@ NazFarmer:[/b] Your explanations were helpful and were not confusing at all. It seems to make more sense now. Perhaps praying is a reasonable thing after all...? I'm going to have to roll this around in my brain some more.

Edited July 9, 2008 by BlueRose

[Apotheoun]

Life is a journey, and you never know where it will end.

[littleflower+JMJ]

[quote name='BlueRose' post='1595713' date='Jul 9 2008, 12:17 AM']Yes, exactly. I'm from way back when. I think my member number is 31. I myself tried to change the Church Militant status because I realized how contradictory it was to my current purpose here!

I'm really pleased at how helpful and nice everyone has been. I'm at a new juncture in life - getting married in a few months, and also just recently lost my best friend - so I'm in a "searching" phase, I suppose, as everything is shifting into new places. It has been nice to bounce ideas off you guys and not feel preached at or rejected.[/quote]

Bluerose...do you mind if I run and tackle you with a bear hug? (virtually of course ) its so great to see you post! I've always thought about you throughout the phatmass years and wondered how you are doing (asking your father many times too! ). Welcome back and hope this place can become home for you again, at least for the time being or however long you need us and are able to help God bless you and know you have my prayers always!

FYI: Bluerose use to be a poster here when there was only a small gang of youngster's lol in the creepy alien section...now we're all kind of old

[BlueRose]

[quote name='littleflower+JMJ' post='1595781' date='Jul 9 2008, 03:41 AM']Bluerose...do you mind if I run and tackle you with a bear hug? (virtually of course ) its so great to see you post! I've always thought about you throughout the phatmass years and wondered how you are doing (asking your father many times too! ). Welcome back and hope this place can become home for you again, at least for the time being or however long you need us and are able to help God bless you and know you have my prayers always!

FYI: Bluerose use to be a poster here when there was only a small gang of youngster's lol in the creepy alien section...now we're all kind of old [/quote]

Hehe - hugs are always welcome. Nice to see a familiar face. Hope you've been well!

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Jesus_lol' post='1595610' date='Jul 8 2008, 09:52 PM']maybe the mods have been recently?

[/quote]

In case you failed to read my message from the mods... only dust can change people's status... we just do a lot of the grunt work.