Pray I

Believers prayed and God answered,
Several score of specific requests a week,
Carefully charted and happily shared.

Then God stopped answering,
Or, perversely, answered the opposite.
The couples divorced. The people died.

“Does it pay to pray?” asked a man to the pastor,
Who was already feeling discouraged by the lack of results.

The pastor stopped. And thought.

Whether it pays to pray or not doesn’t really matter,
He realized. Does it pay to talk to your friends?

We don’t talk to our friends in order to get something.
We don’t chart the responses.
We talk because we like relationship.

And sometimes we speak of the gifts given,
Of the answers received,
Because we know they come from love, not transaction.