THE LEAD LIGHT: Happenings, Aug 4, 2026

HAPPENINGS LEAD ARTICLE
AUGUST 4, 2026

One of the things I often struggle with is thinking it is ok to pray for things I want. Prayer is often, in my default mode, simply for people who are ill, people who are struggling, people who are facing great challenges. It’s one of the reasons, I think, that when we pray for the blessings of this life, the room, wherever you happen to be, becomes deathly silent. We don’t know how to pray for what we want or give thanks for the good things we have. Worse than both of those, we don’t think God wants to hear our blessings and our hopes.

Contrast that of course, to being in a room where we are asked to pray for those in need. The cacophony of names, causes, tragedies and other things will ring aloud for minutes before it comes to an end.

On my way out of the Church last Sunday, Dee asked if it would be ok to pray for the Memorial Garden, the Rainbow Bridge and the Harvest Bazaar. These are core ministries that will impact the community where we live in significant ways. Why is it we haven’t been explicitly praying for them since the very beginning? It was as if Dee had struck me over the head with a baseball bat.

This sort of thing has happened to me a number of times in my priestly career. Those moments where someone says something that might seem mundane, but truly is the Holy Spirit whacking me over the head with a baseball bat. Thank you Dee, for being a vessel in which the Spirit moves among us.

Praying for what we want is still something important to pray for alongside prayers for those in need. I do think there is a limit though. We see soccer players and baseball players and football players give thanks to God, not so much in a prayer but more as an expression of faith. My hope however, is that their prayers are not to win, or to vanquish their enemies. But to be filled with the strength, courage and wisdom to be the best they can be.

In the same vein, we don’t pray for money or a guardian angel to appear and give us the lottery winnings, we pray instead for receiving exactly what we need to do this work that we believe God has led us to. We pray for strength, courage and wisdom to accomplish our goals, or rather, the goals God has laid out for us. And not so much goals, we pray for the inbreaking of the Kingdom to transform our lives and our holy spaces.

So we will begin to pray for what we want here at St. Ed’s. And I would ask you to do the same, both for your own life, and for our life together as a community of faith. Clarity will be coming on exactly what it is we are trying to do here, and as that clarity arrives, we will be more clear about what prayers we need to help build, shape and grow this community into something vital, that is a full expression of the reign of God here in our world.

Be well,
Aron

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