Left unpublished at Samuel Clemons' death in 1910 was a little work entitled The War Prayer. Much to his disappointment, his family and his publishers convinced him not to release the work while he was living. They believed that the little book would be considered sacrilegious. He gave in to their counsel, saying, "I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the truth in this world. It can be published after I am dead."
And it was. Mark Twain's The War Prayer was published in 1916.
The work is a scathing indictment of war. Even more, it calls into question blind patriotism and religious fervor as motivations for war. Beyond that, though, the book has much to say about the prayers that we pray - and not just the words that make up our prayers, but the unspoken implications of our prayers as well.
Our prayers are, most simply, the words that we say. But there is also a hidden part of our prayers that we would probably never speak out loud . . . and perhaps not even notice.
Mark Twain's little book starts with a typical prayer for victory in battle, the kind of prayer that most of us would find utterly acceptable. We want our side to win. And we pray for that to happen. After the prayer is prayed, however, a messenger from God arrives and says this:
God's servant and yours
has prayed his prayer.
Has he paused and taken thought?
Is it one prayer?
No, it is two -
one uttered, the other not.
Both have reached the ear
of Him Who heareth all supplications,
the spoken and the unspoken.
Ponder this - keep it in mind.
If you would beseech
a blessing upon yourself, beware!
lest without intent
you invoke a curse upon a neighbor
at the same time.
If you pray for the blessing of rain
upon your crop which needs it,
by that act you are possibly praying
for a curse upon some neighbor's crop
which may not need rain
and can be injured by it.
has prayed his prayer.
Has he paused and taken thought?
Is it one prayer?
No, it is two -
one uttered, the other not.
Both have reached the ear
of Him Who heareth all supplications,
the spoken and the unspoken.
Ponder this - keep it in mind.
If you would beseech
a blessing upon yourself, beware!
lest without intent
you invoke a curse upon a neighbor
at the same time.
If you pray for the blessing of rain
upon your crop which needs it,
by that act you are possibly praying
for a curse upon some neighbor's crop
which may not need rain
and can be injured by it.
In the book, this messenger then proceeds to put into words the hidden part of the victory prayer - the part that was never spoken aloud. The prayer for victory seemed so innocuous, so appropriate. But then the heavenly messenger fills in the silent message of the prayer and gives voice to the horrible destruction of others that would be required for that prayer for victory to be fulfilled. The messenger essentially says, "When you pray this, you are actually praying this as well!"
And God hears both parts.
I am not, of course, suggesting that we stop praying. But I am suggesting that we pray more carefully and more thoughtfully. When I pray for rescue from my enemies, for example, am I aware that my rescue will mean that something will happen to those enemies? When I pray for victory, am I aware that my victory will likely mean destruction for others? As Glenn Pemberton says it, "To pray for our success, our prosperity, our victory, or our premiere status requires someone else to come up short."
We surely need to keep praying, but perhaps we should pray more carefully. As Mark Twain makes clear, the rain that I request might actually end up doing damage to your crops. So perhaps even our praying should be done more humbly. And maybe we should spend less time telling God what we want to have happen - and more time inviting God to do what he thinks is best.
Even if that means we don't win the victory.
Most of us probably don't really mean to pray the hidden half of our prayers. But we would be wise to understand that those hidden halves are there.
And recognizing the hidden parts of our prayers might just cause us to be more reverent with the parts of our prayers that we speak out loud.
And God hears both parts.
I am not, of course, suggesting that we stop praying. But I am suggesting that we pray more carefully and more thoughtfully. When I pray for rescue from my enemies, for example, am I aware that my rescue will mean that something will happen to those enemies? When I pray for victory, am I aware that my victory will likely mean destruction for others? As Glenn Pemberton says it, "To pray for our success, our prosperity, our victory, or our premiere status requires someone else to come up short."
We surely need to keep praying, but perhaps we should pray more carefully. As Mark Twain makes clear, the rain that I request might actually end up doing damage to your crops. So perhaps even our praying should be done more humbly. And maybe we should spend less time telling God what we want to have happen - and more time inviting God to do what he thinks is best.
Even if that means we don't win the victory.
Most of us probably don't really mean to pray the hidden half of our prayers. But we would be wise to understand that those hidden halves are there.
And recognizing the hidden parts of our prayers might just cause us to be more reverent with the parts of our prayers that we speak out loud.