We own a house in Rhode Island! Today is a very happy day for me and my family. We are moving to Rhode Island and today is the day that we closed on the purchase of our new home. We are so happy to have a beautiful home in the place where we want to live.
You might say that our prayers have been answered, but I don't think that is the way that prayer works. I think that prayer, when it is successful, is a way for us to answer God's wishes, not a way for God to answer ours. Let me tell you what makes me think about that today.
I have been beaming all day since I got the word from my wife up in Rhode Island about the completion of the sale. (I'm still down in Florida). This afternoon when I went outside, as I often do, to pray the afternoon prayers, I was stunned to hear myself speak the opening words of the service, even though I know them by heart and recite them regularly.
Ashrei yoshvei veitecha. Happy are they who live in Your house.
Wait. I was just thinking about how happy I will be to live in my new house. Now, all of the sudden, I hear my very own words telling me that it is actually God's house that I am happy to live in. And, I have to say, it is true.
I am outside on a beautiful day. My heart is light and happy with the day's good news, even though I am more than a thousand miles from my family's new house. My happiness does not come from a yellow, center-entrance colonial structure in New England. How could it? I'm in Florida. My happiness comes from feeling good about the world around me. I am feeling good about my emotional connection to my family, even while they are far from me. I am feeling good about the joyful anticipation of a new job and a new life in Rhode Island.
If there is a house that I am happy to be living in right now, it is the house built out of the gifts I have received in my life. This is God's house, not mine.
Prayer is like this. It has a way of unexpectedly putting words into my mouth that provide insight, meaning and wonder. When I pray, those words become my words. I understand them differently than another person might understand the same words. The words of the prayer help me reflect on my life in the here and now. Because I am the one who is speaking the prayer, the words become personal and powerful. That is what Ashrei did for me today.
As a rabbi, I often recommend that people try prayer, but not because it is something that we are "supposed" to do or because I want to get them to be "more Jewish." I recommend prayer because it works. When a person accepts even a small and simple practice of prayer, it has the ability to make him or her more thoughtful, more patient, more accepting, and – honest to God – happier.
So, if you don't pray, why not try it? Why would you reject something that could make you happier? I often suggest that people set a time each afternoon to say "thank you" for three things that have happened that day. I suggest that people try beginning every day with a simple prayer of gratitude for being alive. I suggest that they go to bed every night with words of forgiveness for others and for themselves. Even these simple practices, spoken in words that you understand, can make you a happier person.
I believe down to the core of my being that God wants people to be happy. I believe that happiness is the natural state of the human soul. Prayer is a tool for gently freeing ourselves of the distractions and anxieties that keep us from knowing ourselves to be happy. When we pray, we help God to achieve the divine intention of allowing us to be happy.
Ashrei yoshvei veitecha. Happy are they who live in Your house.
May you know whose house you are living in, and may it make you happy.
Other Posts on This Topic:
Why Pray?
How to Pray?
You might say that our prayers have been answered, but I don't think that is the way that prayer works. I think that prayer, when it is successful, is a way for us to answer God's wishes, not a way for God to answer ours. Let me tell you what makes me think about that today.
I have been beaming all day since I got the word from my wife up in Rhode Island about the completion of the sale. (I'm still down in Florida). This afternoon when I went outside, as I often do, to pray the afternoon prayers, I was stunned to hear myself speak the opening words of the service, even though I know them by heart and recite them regularly.
Ashrei yoshvei veitecha. Happy are they who live in Your house.
Wait. I was just thinking about how happy I will be to live in my new house. Now, all of the sudden, I hear my very own words telling me that it is actually God's house that I am happy to live in. And, I have to say, it is true.
I am outside on a beautiful day. My heart is light and happy with the day's good news, even though I am more than a thousand miles from my family's new house. My happiness does not come from a yellow, center-entrance colonial structure in New England. How could it? I'm in Florida. My happiness comes from feeling good about the world around me. I am feeling good about my emotional connection to my family, even while they are far from me. I am feeling good about the joyful anticipation of a new job and a new life in Rhode Island.
If there is a house that I am happy to be living in right now, it is the house built out of the gifts I have received in my life. This is God's house, not mine.
Prayer is like this. It has a way of unexpectedly putting words into my mouth that provide insight, meaning and wonder. When I pray, those words become my words. I understand them differently than another person might understand the same words. The words of the prayer help me reflect on my life in the here and now. Because I am the one who is speaking the prayer, the words become personal and powerful. That is what Ashrei did for me today.
As a rabbi, I often recommend that people try prayer, but not because it is something that we are "supposed" to do or because I want to get them to be "more Jewish." I recommend prayer because it works. When a person accepts even a small and simple practice of prayer, it has the ability to make him or her more thoughtful, more patient, more accepting, and – honest to God – happier.
So, if you don't pray, why not try it? Why would you reject something that could make you happier? I often suggest that people set a time each afternoon to say "thank you" for three things that have happened that day. I suggest that people try beginning every day with a simple prayer of gratitude for being alive. I suggest that they go to bed every night with words of forgiveness for others and for themselves. Even these simple practices, spoken in words that you understand, can make you a happier person.
I believe down to the core of my being that God wants people to be happy. I believe that happiness is the natural state of the human soul. Prayer is a tool for gently freeing ourselves of the distractions and anxieties that keep us from knowing ourselves to be happy. When we pray, we help God to achieve the divine intention of allowing us to be happy.
Ashrei yoshvei veitecha. Happy are they who live in Your house.
May you know whose house you are living in, and may it make you happy.
Other Posts on This Topic:
Why Pray?
How to Pray?
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