Three on Prayer

"Praying for particular things," said I, "always seems to me like advising God how to run the world. Wouldn't it be wiser to assume that He knows best?"

"On the same principle," said he, "I suppose you never ask a man next to you to pass the salt, because God knows best whether you ought to have salt or not. And I suppose you never take an umbrella, because God knows best whether you ought to be wet or dry."

"That's quite different," I protested.

"I don't see why," said he. "The odd thing is that He should let us influence the course of events at all. But since He lets us do it in one way I don't see why He shouldn't let us do it in the other."
~C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock, "Scraps" (1945)

I must often be glad that certain past prayers of my own were not granted.
~C.S. Lewis, Christian Reflections, "Petitionary Prayer: A Problem Without an Answer", (1953)

Prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them.
~C.S. Lewis, The World's Last Night and Other Essays, "The Efficacy of Prayer" (1959)

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On this day:

1966 J.R.R. Tolkien contemplates the merits of getting an unlisted phone number.

"Oxford Sewage Disposal Unit" - Warren Lewis's method of answering the phone at The Kilns.

Links of the day: Seriously cute kid's umbrellas