Two: The Power of Prayer

Here’s another practice we can do daily. Prayer is so much more powerful than we realize, maybe because we are so often actually wheedling, or asking for things that aren’t good for us, and when the answer is “no” we get mad. I personally have carried on from time to time like a two-year-old who has been told no, you can’t drink the kerosene. But I want to drink the kerosene! Why can’t I drink the kerosene? You are so mean to me!

Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened unto you. For everyone asking receives; and the one seeking finds; and to the one knocking, it will be opened. Who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent?” None of us, of course, nor with any of our other children or other people’s children either, and much less would any mother among us dream of doing such a thing—and this goes especially for when we really are asking for bread or a fish and not a stone or a serpent. All it takes is a clear intention and a sincere wish.

Whenever and however we choose to do it, we can jump right into asking for help to uproot every bit of White racism harbored in our unconscious—and when it comes up, we can honor the embarrassment and welcome our remorse, always remembering that sooner or later, all is forgiven.

And also not forgetting the immortal words of Fannie Lou Hamer: “You can pray until you faint, but unless you get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap.” That’s what the other practices in this handbook are for: clearing out, as expeditiously as possible, everything in the way of getting up and doing things that will really make a difference.