A fundamental doctrine of Christianity is God’s omniscience. Once you realize that God knows everything, you naturally come to the question, why should I pray? I’m not going to tell God anything He doesn’t already know. He knows who He is better than I know Him, so why praise Him? He knows what I’ve done, so why confess my sins? He knows what I need, so why should I ask anything of Him?

There is a simple and sufficient answer to the question. We should pray because God has commanded us to pray. That is enough. Nothing more is needed.

Matthew 6:5-9

5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name….”

Philippians 4:6-7

6 [D]o not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:17

[P]ray without ceasing….

There are many other such passages. I think that anyone familiar with the Bible will acknowledge that the Scriptures command us to pray.

But going beyond the command, in reading a commentary on John 17, I ran across the following quote that I think is helpful in understanding why we should pray.

Remember, as we study this chapter [Jesus' High Priestly Prayer of John 17], how evidently we are taught that prayer is not intended to move the heart of God — no need for that. The Lord will have His people pray, in order that they may assure their own hearts, by bringing their need, their difficulties, and their cases before Him whom they have been taught to know as able and willing to help them. Prayer is the promise sent back in faith and confidence for the performance; and the prayer of faith is a testimony to the same. No other inducements are needed, the Saviour’s prayer has taught us this.

[Our Lord Prays For His Own: Thoughts on John 17, by Marcus Rainsford]

We live our faith by praying, for prayer is expressing our explicit trust in God.

Why pray? Because God has commanded us to, and as His children, we trust Him.

Q.100. What does the beginning of the Lord’s prayer teach us?

A. The beginning of the Lord’s prayer (Our Father in heaven) teaches us to draw near to God with completely holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father who is able and ready to help us. It also teaches us that we should pray with and for others.

AP Photo:

Caption: “New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, left, is pushed by Boston Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek, right, after Rodriguez was hit by a pitch from Red pitcher Bronson Arroyo in the third inning at Boston’s Fenway Park, Saturday, July 24, 2004. Rodriguez and Varitek were ejected from the game. (AP Photo/Barry Chin, The Boston Globe)”

You’ve got to be careful when clowning around. Jim Cara’s little joke got him over two hundred parking tickets.

Headline AP: Vanity License Plate Brings Tickets

WILMINGTON, Del. – A vanity license tag chosen as a gag has left its owner holding the bag. Jim Cara thought the “NOTAG” plate he got for his Suzuki motorcycle would give people a laugh.

Instead, he found that the laugh — along with more than 200 parking violations — was on him.

The new tag arrived in the mail Saturday, along with an avalanche of Wilmington parking violations.

“All the traffic tickets say, ‘Notice of violation. License number: no tag,’” Cara explained.

Officials said city computers linked to state Division of Motor Vehicles computers finally found an address for ticketed vehicles that lacked license tags: Cara’s home in Elsmere….

John Rago, spokesman for Wilmington Mayor James Baker, said an incorrect computer code used by the contractor that processes the city’s parking violations helped land the tickets in Cara’s mail. City officials plan to have it corrected, he said.

Humor is vital for a modern politician. Humor makes the candidate seem down to earth and is one of the fundamental ways a politician can connect with voters. If you can laugh with them, you think of them as real people. If they are funny, they are more likeable, and it leads to more votes.

But the kind of humor is important. Dark, attacking humor that tears down an opponent can backfire, leaving the voters to think of the politician as cruel and mean spirited. So most politicians will make fun of themselves to show that they have a sense of humor and that they don’t take themselves too seriously.

I ran across a few examples of this kind of humor today, and I think it is pretty effective in leaving you with a better feeling about the politician.

An example of President Bush’s humor:

“Dick Cheney is the best vice president this nation has ever had,” Bush frequently declares to enthusiastic applause on the campaign trail…. “My mother may not agree.”

Also from the above link, an example of Senator Edwards’ humor:

At last year’s Gridiron Dinner, the officially off-the-record swell affair where top officials poke fun at themselves for the amusement of Washington’s insiders, the freshman senator [John Edwards] displayed his own common touch when he objected to the claim that frivolous lawsuits never helped anyone by saying, “Yeah, tell that to my new house in Georgetown.”

An example of Vice President Cheney’s humor:

Somebody said to me the other day that Senator Edwards got picked for his good looks and charm. I said, “How do you think I got this job?”

I don’t have an example for Senator Kerry. I’m sure he also uses self-deprecating humor, but I just didn’t run across any examples. It is too effective of a tool for him to not be using it. Kerry has been a politician for a long time, and he knows how to campaign. I’m sure he does the same thing.

From Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.

[Catherine:] “I do not understand you.”

[Henry:] “Then we are on very unequal terms, for I understand you perfectly well.”

[Catherine:] “Me? Yes; I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.”

[Henry:] “Bravo! An excellent satire on modern language.”

I have known many a person who speaks well enough to be unintelligible. Many politicians in particular have this talent to speak so well that no one can understand them. It is also a gift with which some of our managers at work have been blessed.

I recall a meeting of our entire section several years ago. It was a last minute, no notice, drop everything and come meeting. Those are the kind that means something big is afoot. There had been rumors of layoffs, and people were very nervous as we gathered to hear the news. You could feel the tension in the air as our Section Head began to speak. He went on for over fifteen minutes speaking so well that he was unintelligible. The general idea was that money was tight, and we had to do what we could for the good of the company, but as he continued to talk without actually saying anything, people got visibly more upset and nervous.

Finally, he let the news drop: A couple people would be shifted from one team to another. That was it. It was no big deal. By the way he handled it, some people were almost in tears. But he had his fifteen minutes of talking to an audience that could fully appreciate his oratorical skills before actually getting around to saying what was the purpose of the meeting.

I like to think that, like Catherine, and unlike my previous Section Head, I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.

I have played many matching games with my children over the years. You know the kind: Lay out the cards face down. You take turns flipping two of the cards. If the two match, you keep them and take another turn. If they don’t match, you flip them back face down and your turn is over.

My kids always beat me at those games. It isn’t even close. It is like the Yankees playing a little league team. And they show no mercy, usually running the board once we are down to about half of the cards left. Once a card has been turned, they can remember it. They’ve got minds like a steel trap, locking in the position of every card that has been exposed. I on the other hand, have a mind like a broken sieve, letting each cards position slip right out of my mind. I can only get a vague sense of where it was, and rarely do I find the card again. And rarely do I get the chance to even try a second time, since they snag most all the cards I expose.

But after years of knowing this to be a fact of life – all my kids have dramatically better short term memory than I in playing these matching games – I can now proclaim it as a fact instead of just being my opinion. Because now there has been a pseudo-scientific STUDY proving it.

Headline Reuters: Small Kids Have Better Memories Than Parents-Study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Next time, maybe you’ll believe your kid. Small children apparently have better memories than their parents, researchers reported on Thursday.

They found a 5-year-old could beat most adults on a recognition memory test, at least under specific conditions.

So who says there still aren’t things left out there to discover? Maybe I can do a STUDY on who likes playing freeze tag more, children or adults.

I guess that normally, rivers only erode during daylight hours. But for particularly scenic gorges (and time and a half pay), they put in some extra effort.

Headline AP: Rivers Worked Overtime to Cut Grand Gorges

WASHINGTON – The Potomac and Susquehanna rivers worked double-time to create gorges that remain scenic wonders today, carving through bedrock at twice the usual rate.

How in the world does a river work “double-time”? Do most rivers only flow 12 hours a day, and these ran for 24 hours a day? Or does it mean they had twice the volume of water in the same time? But then they aren’t working double time; they’re working twice as hard in the same amount of time.

What a silly way to say that the rivers eroded the rock faster than normally expected.

Bruce Bartlett writes in National Review:

Back in 1985, the Coca-Cola Co. made a major screw-up. It decided to get rid of its classic cola drink and replace it with something sweeter called New Coke. The company had extensively market-tested the new product and was convinced that it would lead to higher sales. But when consumers found out that they would lose the Coke they had loved for 100 years, there was a vast outcry and the company was forced to dump New Coke and bring back the old formula.

Republicans have made a similar screw-up in adding a prescription-drug benefit to Medicare. They looked at polls showing strong support for a Medicare drug benefit and concluded that enactment of such a program would make them more popular. But as the Coca-Cola Co. discovered, people may tell market researchers one thing, but when confronted with a new reality they can quickly change their minds.

So far, the data not only show that Republicans have reaped no political benefit from the Medicare expansion, but they are losing support because of it. Ironically, those who will benefit directly from the new drug subsidies, the elderly, are the most hostile. In the process, Republicans have thrown away whatever credibility they had for fiscal responsibility, and are now actively opposed by many conservatives disgusted by their budgetary profligacy….

Consequently, Republicans are now starting to realize — as Coca-Cola did — that they screwed-up big time. As columnist Robert Novak reports, "Senior administration officials privately admit that last year’s prescription-drug bill was a disaster substantively and politically."

It is here where we really see the difference between the public sector and the private sector. When Coca-Cola executives realized they had made a big mistake, they switched gears, brought back Classic Coke, and eventually deep-sixed New Coke. They had no choice in a competitive marketplace. But government officials never admit error. So Republicans seem intent on slogging the benefits of a new drug benefit that will cost trillions of dollars for people who don’t like it.

The New Coke analogy is pretty good. Perhaps the Republican leadership lives too much in the world of Washington D.C. and doesn’t understand how these things are going to play out in the real world. But it seemed obvious from the start that this pandering would not go well. Just like messing with the formula for Coke, the loyal Coke drinkers are going to be upset because you have changed their beloved product, and the Pepsi drinkers are going to abuse you no end because you have admitted your product is inferior and needs to be improved.

The Washington D.C. Republicans seem so intent on being liked by the media, that they are willing to give away the store, hoping against experience that this time the press and the Democrats will like them. Then they are surprised when they are still attacked. Wouldn’t it be better to stand up for your principles and take the abuse for doing what you believe is right rather than compromise your principles in a vain effort to be popular? You are going to be attacked either way, so why not do what you thing is right? But this kind of common sense doesn’t exist inside the Washington D.C. beltway.

If only we could send this terrible prescription drug benefit program back to where the New Coke formula now is.

AP Photo:

Caption: “Astronaut Edwin E. ‘Buzz’ Aldrin Jr. poses for a photograph beside the U.S. flag deployed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. Aldrin and fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong were the first men to walk on the lunar surface with temperatures ranging from 243 degrees above to 279 degrees below zero. Astronaut Michael Collins flew the command module. The trio was launched to the moon by a Saturn V launch vehicle at 9:32 a.m. EDT, July 16, 1969. They departed the moon July 21, 1969.America had beaten the Soviet Union in the race for moon exploration. (AP Photo/Neil Armstrong, NASA)”