Bear with me, here.

I listened to the preacher as he told me what to do
He said you can’t go hatin’ others who have done wrong to you
Sometimes we get angry but we must not condemn
Let the good Lord do his job, you just pray for them

I pray your brakes go out runnin’ down a hill
I pray a flower pot falls from a window sill
And knocks you in the head like I’d like to
[…more creative "prayers"…]
Just know wherever you are, honey, I pray for you

Here’s the vid:

And if you act before Tuesday, the video’s a free download on iTunes. Lyrics.

This seems to me like the kind of petty “prayers” that most people actually pray. Of course, they’re just as petty in the positive: “I pray that my brakes work today” is trusting to some Great Unknown something that is better entrusted to a car mechanic (or yourself, if you work on your own car). Someone posted on fb the other day that she asked for our prayers because there was a fire and her “family’s cabin is in real danger”. So (a) God cares about her family’s cabin’s survival and (b) I can change God’s mind about it. WTF‽ If the Divine cares about anything, it should be millions of children dying of malaria, AIDS, and dysentery, not some PWW’s second home.

Of course, this song also reminded me of my favorite Irish prayer:

May those who love us,
Love us.
And those who do not love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles,
So we’ll know them by their limping.

Even if one does believe in a Divine Who cares what our prayers are, wouldn’t the Divine be offended that we ask for such petty things? Or even more, wouldn’t the Divine dislike that we spend so much of our energy praying for evil?

I just saw Agora (which I’ll review later) and, at one point, a man who has just converted to Christianity starts to pray the Our Father; but he forgets the words and ends up praying perhaps the most pure prayer I’ve ever heard: “Lord, please don’t let anyone suffer. Don’t let anyone suffer; don’t let anyone suffer […] Amen.” Now that is a prayer I can get behind (as long as it’s backed up with some actions toward that goal).