Pray for Paris

Eerily on Friday the 13th this year, tragedy struck the world.

Several terrorist attacks occurred in France. There were 3 suicide bombings, hostage takings, and shootings coordinated by ISIL. 368 people were injured, and 130 were killed. It was the deadliest set of attacks on France since World War II.

Suddenly, the media burst into #prayforparis. This picture of the Eiffel tower as a piece sign was all over my Instagram feed, and Facebook even made it possible to layer the French flag over your profile picture. It really was a beautiful thing that we all have such support for Paris in this difficult and scary time, and to some degree it restores my faith in humanity.

However, at the same time, I found myself a little annoyed. While so many people were properly using #prayforparis as a genuine request for prayer for the families, military, government, system, security, justice, etc., so many people were missing the point. I'm sure there were people who used the hashtag, but didn't pray themselves. I'm sure some people used it for their own personal gain, to make themselves appear passionate and caring or to get their picture seen by more people by using a popular hashtag. I'm sure some people don't really even know what prayer is and actually meant to say #thinkofparis. And I'm sure that some people have the same confusion and doubt about prayer that I do at times:

Does prayer even work?

I can think of several times that I've prayed for things and found that my prayers weren't answered. For example, I got a B on that test last week, I still haven't found a decent man who wants to date a quirky mess like me, and my anxiety has not gone away. I actually prayed awhile back that ISIL would calm down and stop hurting people. How many of us have prayed for world peace, but, well, here we are.

Then there are those things that do work out. My friend, Emily, said that she prayed for finances for college, and they came.

I just feel like I can never be sure if the cool things and answered prayers in my life are works of God or just little coincidences. Then again, some things that happen just make you wonder how the heck something worked out, and you think man, that's gotta be God.

I hear those miracle stories from the doctor's offices. Yanno, where the kid has some horrible illness, the church prays, then the kid recovers miraculously against all odds, and the doctors have never seen anything like it... Those are cool I guess. They sort of make me believe in the power of prayer.

I don't know. I'll pray about it...