“Pray as though everything depends on God. Work as though everything depends on you.” St Augustine
Some believe in God and prayers, some don’t. We do not have to quarrel about this. For those who believe in prayers, do as St Augustine admonished above, for those who do not, do as admonished by the second part of St Augustine’s statement, work!
Some say leaders are to blame, while others say citizens are as culpable as leaders in the current global disorder, which ever side you fall on, you must definitely agree that we have found ourselves in a chaotic situation either by what we did or failed to do. Some of us want to make changes. Some want to pray to change things, some want to work to do this, some want to do both. Some have been attacked for praying too much instead of doing, usually this attack comes anytime “the praying ones” attribute anything to the grace of God, and not necessarily because the accusers (the non-praying ones) have adjudged that they aren’t really working; indeed in many instances, those praying are actually doing more than the accusers who despise them for praying only. Contrary to the stereotype about those who pray, praying as a matter of fact, sometimes indicates that one has grasped the enormity of the disorder, and their relative insignificance in the big scheme of things, that they have to rely on One who is bigger. Reflecting on a problem, and grasping its full import, is already a step in the right direction! So again, I will say each one, no matter their belief, should look carefully at St Augustine’s statement and do that which applies to them.
In Benjamin Jowett’s translation of The Republic by Plato, he included this food for thought by More in the “Introduction and Analysis” section:
“In the public services ‘no prayers be used, but such as every man may boldly pronounce without giving offence to any sect.’ He says significantly, ‘There be that give worship to a man that was once of excellent virtue or of famous glory, not only as God, but also the chiefest and highest God. But the most and the wisest part, rejecting all these, believe that there is a certain godly power unknown, far above the capacity and reach of man’s wit, dispersed throughout all the world, not in bigness, but in virtue and power. Him they call the Father of all. To Him alone they “attribute the beginnings, the increasings, the proceedings, the changes, and the ends of all things. Neither give they any divine honours to any other than Him.”
Excerpt From
The Republic
Plato
“If you have anything to do, get on, get cracking, and do it. Procrastination and delay kill slowly, steadily, and surely. Invariably, there is no better time than now.” Excerpt from: Olusegun Obasanjo. My Watch.
We all have something to do, to make the world a better place, either by praying and working or just working! But whatever it is let’s all GET CRACKING!!! Just as we have been implored by the Nigerian Philosopher! Let us begin by stopping COVID-19 for now. See link to related article:
Get Cracking! With The Watchman
“I went down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon the son of Ariston, that I might offer up my prayers to the goddess” Socrates
Excerpt From
The Republic
Plato
Ande Elisha
The Amateur Philosopher
Contemplation and action are actually the sides of the same coin as you rightly pointed out. The complain uttered against prayer and those who pray,in my humble opinion, is a reaction to the hypocrisy associated with public prayer. Remember, the Pastor and staff of INEC onGL12 who was found having multiple wives and millions of Naira .This scenario is common place and has cast Prayer in bad light.
The global chaos you are worried about is not due to lack of contemplation (which prayer expresses) or action. Rather, it is a deliberate outcome of profiteering consequent upon the development of private Property in the means of production. The Anarchist philosophical maxim: there is order in disorder conveys the truth of the present global disorder .
Different attitudes to the disorder the world is in. The only group that could be described as nuisance is the complacent group; those praying are behind the scene ‘ pushing ” the hands of those working. They are the supernatural emerge that bring about action. Therefore, there should be no criticism of too much prayer. The saying of St. Augustine, that we should pray as if it all depends on prayer is apt.