In the year 1876 in a small room called a laboratory, a young man was conducting an experiment. Before him was a large glass bulb in which there was a thin wire. Attached to the base of the bulb was another wire which in turn was attached to a large battery.

The young man spoke to his two helpers, "Blow out those candles and when I throw this switch, you will witness the first incandescent light ever devised by man." The candles were extinguished. The switch was thrown. There was an instantaneous flash of light followed by total darkness. Groans of disappointment were heard. The candles were re-lit and the young man spoke, "I'm sorry. I still have a long way to go. The trouble seems to be in the wire filament I used. It was not of sufficient strength to withstand the heat of the battery. As you can see, it was completely consumed."

It was three years and several thousand dollars later before success was achieved. On that day, a filament of carbonized cotton thread made in the shape of a loop remained aglow in the vacuum of the glass bulb for over forty hours. The problem was solved and the young man's faith in electricity was rewarded.

The young man's name was Thomas A. Edison. Why had he remained so confident? What enabled him to remain steadfast in the face of so many disappointments? Edison knew that only his experiments had failed. He retained his undying faith in the force with which he was working. The cosmic force of electricity had not failed.

As a boy and then as a young man, he had watched the wonder of electricity in action. Dark summer evening skies had been filled with giant "fingers" of electricity called lightning. As lightning streaked across the sky, he had witnessed the momentary illumination of the landscape around him. Edison knew the force called electricity could be depended upon to provide brilliant illumination. Electricity had not failed him in his earlier attempts to devise a light bulb. Only the man who sought to understand it had failed because of his own limitations. Although we do not completely understand how electricity works, we see the results of it everyday - telephones, televisions, fax machines and the illumination of acres of land as ball games are being played at night. There is a parallel here between electricity and prayer. Just as no one completely understands how electricity works, no one, except God, completely understands how prayer works. Nevertheless, there is tremendous power in prayer just as there is in electricity.

The dynamics of prayer will never be completely understood either. Only God will completely comprehend how prayer affects the ones praying and the ones being prayed for. Nevertheless, we can witness from time to time the results of prayer. Those results may be a quiet and gradual change in one's attitude about a situation or one's outlook on all of life. At other times, prayer may result in radical or dynamic change in a person's life.

The sad truth is that great numbers of people - some lifelong members of the church - have never discovered or experienced prayer as a vital and meaningful force in their lives. All too often prayer has been a somewhat perfunctory routine from which little is expected and not much is experienced. Let us remember that this is a human failure. Prayer is God's idea. Through the scriptures we are told over and over to pray. Jesus and Paul both admonished us to pray. In the long history of humankind, we find prayer has been a vital force in the lives of God-fearing men and women.

When we engage ourselves honestly and consistently in prayer, truly believing in it as a divine source of illumination and power, something happens. Something happens to us and through us that never would have happened had we not prayed.