Volunteer your prayers and comfort a world

Broad jump was never my strong event, but I exceeded my personal best recently when a frog flew out of the lettuce I was rinsing in the kitchen sink. True, the greens I’d brought home from the store two days before were labeled “organic,” but I wasn’t expecting anything quite that organic.

After collecting myself—and the frog—I consulted my husband about whether to release it in the ferns in front of our apartment (rather like lettuce, I thought), or in the tidal estuary out back. Neither, he decided. After all, the lettuce didn’t come from around here, so the frog probably didn’t either. His solution? Call WildCare.

A local organization that helps wild animals in need, WildCare is run by a small paid staff and a 350-strong army of volunteers. They quickly identified our stowaway as a California tree frog and promised they’d reintroduce him to his native habitat many miles away.

The amount of care expended on that small creature both surprised and touched me. It made me think of the millions of displaced people in the world and the many wonderful organizations and volunteers who help them. Still, the needs are vast. Could there ever be enough volunteers to take care of them all?

The question prodded me higher. If volunteering is more an attitude than an organized activity, everyone on earth is a potential volunteer. And from a spiritual standpoint, serving others isn’t optional—it’s the Creator’s will. A verse in the Bible says, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” I like to think of that directive as a mission statement for creation. We exist for the purpose of expressing infinite Love everywhere.

This purpose is being fulfilled every day. People voluntarily clean up trash and fix other people’s flat tires. They serve meals at shelters and visit residents of nursing homes. The other day the director of prisoner services at our county jail told me about a group who comes every week to do a church service. Even if no inmates come, they stay and pray for issues at the jail. She says she appreciates this.

That reminded me of the unlimited opportunities there are to volunteer one’s prayers. Compassionate prayer is a spiritual force that counteracts depression and discouragement in the world. Like a great river that overflows its banks, the silent influence of prayer can sweep away pain and grief. I believe it also supports the efforts of volunteers everywhere.

Mary Baker Eddy mentioned two issues that she prayed about every day: relief of the sick and sorrowing, and the cessation of war. A simple prayer I’ve learned through attending interfaith events has given me fresh inspiration to pray for these issues as well. It begins: “May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy” (from the Metta Suta).

For me, one meaning of this prayer is that by asking something that appears impossible, I’m acknowledging that there is a power that surpasses human limitations. It also reminds me that the happiness and safety of all beings is normal, the intention and design of the Creator. The spirit of this prayer isn’t an appeal to a higher being to make people happy and safe, but a recognition that there is divine capacity within everyone to overcome any obstacle to happiness and safety.

Training is important to most volunteer efforts, including prayer. Good intentions are more effective when backed by the right kind of knowledge. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which Mary Baker Eddy published in 1875, has helped many people pray more effectively. It shows how to base prayer on spiritual laws of health and peace that can be proved in anyone’s life.

For example, a law behind good health is that creation is actually the reflection of God’s being, which is completely spiritual and in perpetual harmony. The five physical senses present creation as material and destructible, but spiritual seers including Eddy have discerned an unchanging spiritual reality that can be experienced through unselfish prayer.

An unusual aspect of Eddy’s enlightenment was that it occurred when she was in great need of physical healing. At the time she realized that life was completely spiritual, she was simultaneously healed of life-threatening injuries she had sustained in an accident.

One of the many insights Mary Baker Eddy gained from that healing was that a conscious awareness of spiritual perfection has power to heal the body. She learned that effective prayer isn’t asking God to make people healthy, but rather asking to have one’s eyes opened to the reality that God’s harmony is reflected in the whole creation. She realized that Jesus’ power to heal disease came from this awareness, which he referred to as the kingdom of heaven at hand.

Striving to be conscious of spiritual perfection is crucial for those who volunteer to pray for the end of war as well. The violent images that saturate the news depress hope for peace and make people believe there is no solution to violence except more violence. Prayers for peace counteract this negativity, especially when they are empowered by a growing understanding of the spiritual law that upholds peace. Here’s one statement of this law from Science and Health: “It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established.”

To pray with the understanding that humanity has one divine Mind will help people discover better solutions to sickness and conflict, solutions that go beneath the surface and heal the heart and mind. Those who volunteer their prayers are comforting people in a significant way. They are helping “all beings”—people everywhere—find the happiness and safety that belong to them.

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