God Box

Amplifying prayer

Step Eleven encourages us to pray, and most spiritual paths agree praying is a good thing. Whether the prayer is praise or petition, petty or profound, most faith traditions would agree that the power of prayer is amplified by speaking it aloud. Hearing my prayer fixes it in my mind in a way that dialog in my head can't do. Somehow the vibrations in the air create a reality more real than my thoughts alone. Theologians call this externalization.

What if I take this further?

If I write my prayer, it seems to me that externalization advances another notch -- the words are a more real real.

One famous tradition -- pushing prayers written on bits of paper into the crevices and cracks of the Western Wall in Jerusalem -- suggests that, for many deeply religious, writing prayers has a spiritual force that the spoken word and silent prayer might not.

In the rooms we hear about a God Box, a simple, safe place where we can place our written prayers. We usually connect this suggestion with "Let Go and Let God." We perform this simple ritual as an acknowledgment that a troubling matter is too much for us, and we give it to our Higher Power.

I might just whisper into the box and God would hear, but I believe that actually writing down my prayer amplifies its usefulness to me.

Prayer in box, peace in mind.