Prayer & The Second Great Awakening (revisited)

"Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." -Rumi

 This morning, I braved the storm and walked with some friends to Carleton's Skinner Memorial Chapel for a Unitarian Universalist service.  Aside from being fed and gaining camaraderie with a few Carleton students, I learned a valuable lesson about the nature of prayer.

Because I was raised without the influence of any religion, the idea of prayer has always been strange to me. While "thank god" is a part of my regular vocabulary, I have never deliberatley said a prayer.  My understanding of prayer up until today has been asking God, or placing trust in your beliefs, to put the power of the universe in your favor.  Quite simply, I perceived that people merely prayed to God when they wanted something, and that request was what constituted a prayer.

When I learned that the focus of the service today was prayer, I felt uncomfortable because of my perception of prayer.  Then, I realized that my definition of prayer had been too narrow.  Prayer is merely a response to the human need of voicing our concerns, hopes, and joys aloud.  There is actually a portion of all Unitarian Universalist services where anyone from the group is invited to light a candle and share what is weighing on their heart (good and bad).  While I watched this, an image of the anxious bench came to mind, the idea of people coming forward in a church to share what was on their minds.  I know that this is a loose tie to American Conversations and the second Great Awakening, but the Unitarian Universalists of Northfield have been teaching me a lot and changing my mind on what spirituality means.  As a result, the perspective I bring to conversations about religion is changing.  I'll try not to blog too much about the UUs if I can help it!