Pray on it...

Ok here goes...

I was talking to my brother a few years ago and I'll never forget this question...

Lil brother: If you were in the presences of God right now what would you ask him?

Me: I have all kinds of shit to ask him. I hope he has a few hours.

Lil brother: He doesn't have time to talk to you! HE has more important things to do than to have a conversation with you...

Me: Then why do we pray? If he doesn't have time then what is the purpose of prayer? That would mean that he isn't hearing prayers right?

Lil brother: Good point... You're right.

I'm not a huge religious person. I do believe there is a higher being but I struggle with a lot especially when I look at the churches. I know it's not all churches and I know there are bad seeds in every bunch. However, all I see is the bad stuff. All I see is the hate and the judgement. I thought we weren't supposed to judge but to do our very best to be the best person we can be. None of us is perfect and I know I'm far from it but I try to do the best I can. I also know it's not the deeds that make you a good person but how you are as a person. We should not do good deeds in order to go to a better place but do them because it's the right thing to do. 

I know people ask for prayers and I understand. What I don't understand is when bad things happen the first thing I hear is "All we can do is pray on it". People are out here shooting and we know someone knows who is doing the shooting and all we can do is "Pray on it"? How about we do something about it. How about we stop pretending we don't know what's going on in the community. We know when Jamal is creeping on his woman, we know when Kay is out at the club, what she's wearing and what she drank, we even know when Mr and Mrs Jones last had sex but we don't know who shot up the car down the street. *BLANK STARE* STOP PRAYIN and turn that fool in!!!

I read a book called "A Child Called It", where a boy's mother had abused him for years while the father sat back and watched it happen. This child was tortured on a daily basis by his mother while she coddled her other two sons. Explain to me how as a parent you can stand by and watch your child being tortured and do absolutely nothin. I mean did the man think if he prayed hard enough it would stop? I'm sure his son prayed every night his father would do something or at least the abuse would stop. It took a teacher to finally step up and help that little boy.

"Praying on it..." only goes so far. At some point action is in order! At some point we have to say "Let's make a difference." I'm ok with prayer but while you're praying take action to help the situation. You can't be struggling financially and think that you can "pray" the bills away. You know a child is being abused, you can "pray on it" all you want but that isn't going to stop that child from being abused if there isn't any action to go along with that prayer. And hoping someone will finally help in a bad situation is a horrible strategy! I was told several times "Hope is not a strategy when action is needed". 

So while I think there is a time and a place for prayer there is also a time and a place for action. We have to know when to do which...

That is all...