I have an article in the Journal this month (writing as LJ Wright). Enjoy!
Can we pray about the weather?
By L. J. Wright
From the July 2018 issue of The Christian Science Journal
“I don’t even know how to pray about that!” a friend complained recently when discussing a current world issue. “How could my prayer affect something so … big?”
I had to smile, because I remembered a time when I would have given the same answer: Pray about world peace, world hunger, an epidemic, troubling weather patterns? What would be the point? Things like that don’t change. Even if they did, how would I ever discover that my prayers had done any good?
As I’ve persisted in my study of Christian Science, however, I’ve realized more and more that we can pray about larger issues, and, more importantly, we can reasonably expect results. I have learned that I can and should pray about many of the larger issues of today. While I do not always receive a confirmation of the efficacy of my prayers, at times I have seen evidence of God’s grace in action.
One of the issues many people are concerned about today is the weather. Mary Baker Eddy felt strongly that Christian Scientists should pray about the weather, and some reminiscences by her household workers tell what she said about how to handle the weather through Christian Science. For example, she is recorded as once saying, “The weather expresses our concept of it and can be handled as any claim if you do not hold it as something apart from you, governed by some other power or almanac. God governs all. This is the way Jesus stilled the tempest” (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Expanded Edition, Volume II, p. 287). Among these reminiscences are also testimonies of storms being dispelled by Mrs. Eddy’s prayers (see, for example, We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Expanded Edition, Volume II, pp. 213–215).
I love praying about the weather. I often pray for a sense of harmony between man and nature. I reason that “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). Therefore, nothing can exist that is harmful or inharmonious. This means the weather must be in harmony with the needs of nature and also with humanity. One cannot be left out to favor the other.
