The Reality of Missing Out

Known as the greatest hockey player ever, based on statistics, performance and countless trophies and medals, Wayne Gretzky didn’t just play hockey successfully.  He was not just lucky. He did not just practice. His dynamic scoring had nothing random about it. He studied it. And as a result, he could not just see where the puck was, but could visualize strategically with mathematical precision where it was going, empowering him to execute the right moves at exactly the right time.  He dominated the game, not despite his unimpressive size or natural athletic abilities, but because of his focus.  The area behind the opposing team’s net became known as “Gretzky’s office,” because that is where he would seal his deals. 

He was known for saying, “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.”

I saw that quotation handwritten on a piece of construction paper at Home Depot yesterday.  I have no idea why it was taped on a wall near the registers.  But it made me think of prayer.

“We miss one hundred percent of the prayers we don’t pray.”

If we don’t pray, it doesn’t mean that God does not work it out, but we miss out on the reality of not just seeing His hand, but of His Presence.  We don’t pray to have some super power over circumstances, but to experience His sovereignty in real time.  God guides our thoughts. God aligns our hearts.  God provides His strength and a different way through the overwhelming.  We cannot but be changed in some way when we pray.

Nor can the world.

In praying, we realize we are not in this situation alone.  God does not just show up.  But we realize He is already here.

And in praying for others, we don’t just bring help, but bring witness.  Recently, a friend shared on a zoom call that he was facing a medical procedure he had been dreading for years.  “Oh, my brother had that,” I said.  “He’s fine now.”

Another woman just replied quietly with four profound words, “I’ll pray for you.”

Immediately, I felt like I had tried to fix his dilemma with a happy face band-aid, devoid of faith.  She provided him what he needed most.  Later, he commented about how much her sensitive response gave him peace.

What if we pray?  What if we don’t?  We will never know what we are missing. 

Corrie ten Boom once said, “Don’t expect anything different if you don’t pray.”

What do we miss if we do not pray?  We don’t see God with us.  We overlook His divine appointments and sacred encounters.  We discount His mighty work in our lives.  We ignore that He is God, and we are not.  We miss knowing Him more through this divinely appointed situation.

When we pray, we don’t give God room to work or let Him work – that is not in our power.  Praying does not put God in His place.  It puts us in ours. 

When we walk with Him and cry out to Him, God responds to our needs --sometimes in ways we don’t understand – but He always responds with eternal reverberations far beyond our lifetimes and in the lives of people we may never know.  Praying is trusting Him, not with a particular answer or outcome, but with our lives.  He invites us into His wonders.  God may or may not change circumstances, but through praying to Him, He gives us the courage we need to do what He has given us to do and to be.

The LORD hears when I call to Him.  Psalm 4.3 

And on that Scripture alone, we can stake our lives.