My Prayers for a Magic Carpet Ride

A genie in a bottle. A magic carpet. These were supposed to be from the story of Aladdin, but one day I realized they were not entirely fictional—they described my prayers.

“Bless me and my family with safety today.”

“Bless me and my family to be healthy.”

“Bless us to have the money we need.”

“Please help [name] get better.”

“Bless us to have peace on earth.”

The above statements are common statements in my prayers, or are representative of similar statements I often make when praying. What I realized at some point though is that, in my mind, I was treating God like a genie in a bottle and asking for a magic carpet ride, one that lifted me above the struggles of life and carried me to a good place.

In other words, I wanted the end destination, but I wanted to avoid the journey to get there. I just wanted God to grant the wishes of my heart, without me doing the work to help make them become a reality.

The journey we often seek to avoid is the journey that has elements of risk, injury, suffering, and pain. We pray in our minds wishing that we can simply avoid them, but, ironically, they are the very things we came here to this earth to experience.

Reconciling suffering and God is one of mankind’s great philosophical struggles. The fact that suffering exists leads some to not believe in God. For those that do believe in God, they have to accept that suffering has some form of purpose to it, as it is readily around us in this life and God does not remove it from our lives.

Naturally, we do not seek to suffer, and so our prayers may reflect this desire. But, I believe this goes against the purpose of our existence here on earth.

I believe that we lived before this life, with God. We are His children, and He wants us to become like Him. Living in His presence, there were limits to what we could experience or do, as many things we might choose to do would not be tolerated in His home. He prepared this earth for us to come to in order to gain a physical body, as that was part of our learning to become like Him.

For whatever reason (I do not attempt in this article to dive into the purpose of suffering), suffering was part of that journey. We knew it would be, and we chose to move forward with it. Suffering was such a critical part of the journey that Christ Himself came here to suffer for us.

I believe it is critical to remember that God did not take the magic carpet ride. Christ Himself suffered for us. He took the journey. He partook, and He experienced what this life was designed to help us experience.

When I pray and ask God to help me avoid all suffering, I am asking for the magic carpet ride to avoid the issues of this life. When I ask for that, I am asking to avoid the growth and experiences I came here to experience.

This life is short in the grand scheme of eternity. Suffering is real, it is intense at times, and is certainly unpleasant. Yet, Christ partook without the magic carpet ride. If I am to become like Him, why should I pray to avoid the things that will bring me the most growth, or the things I was supposed to experience in this life?

When I pray for protection, for safety, for health, I may also be praying to avoid growth, developing courage, helping others, meeting people I may not have otherwise, learning from experience, being spiritually refined, or simply being able to be challenged and tasked with overcoming the challenge.

Lat year some of my children and I hiked Mt. Timpanogos. It took us a very long time, and by the time we made it to the peak we were fairly exhausted. As I sat there on the top, looking out at the amazing view, I pondered on what it would feel like to simply ride in a helicopter to the top of the mountain.

To me, the deepest joy of making it to the top was tied up in the struggle to get there. I carried my son at times, and our bond was stronger because of it. If I simply had a magic carpet, or helicopter ride, I would have missed out on the journey, or the piece that brought the deeper satisfaction of making it to the top of the mountain. I would also have missed out on forging a deeper connection with my son.

We were not sent to this life to avoid all problems. We came here to experience problems, pain, suffering, and the like, and to develop the capacity to face these things and overcome them. To be like God, and to grow up to be like Him, we have to develop the capacity to face and overcome all of the darkness that the Universe offers, and we get to experience that, to an extent, during our time here.

As I have become aware of the limits of my prayers, I have been trying to work to change my prayers from “bless me with safety” to “help me be willing to go through all experiences that I need to grow and accomplish the purpose of this life.” Or, instead of “bless the world with peace,” to “help me to know how I can bring some peace to the world today.”

Life is a journey. I am trying to learn to love embracing the journey, rather than praying for a magic carpet ride to avoid it all or wishing that God would simply change things without me doing my part.

Our faith in God can give us hope to get through any dark or troubling period. Faith helps bring strength to keep walking, knowing that there are no shortcuts, cheat codes, or magic carpet rides to God’s kingdom. And, while suffering is real and life is hard, our faith can connect us to God and help us find happiness and joy in the journey, as every step brings us closer to our destination.