Prayers like butterflies...

Today's session of chaplain residency training included an interesting discussion about the purpose of prayer that raised a few questions in my mind. 

Are prayers like the proverbial flutters of a butterfly's wings, small movements that can produce a chain reaction resulting in some massive event?  

Is it possible that prayer is not God's primary instrument of intervention to enact changes in the natural order?  

Could it be that prayer is a tool of personal and corporate spiritual formation that causes a ripple effect: beginning within the people praying or receiving prayer, then moving outward into their actions, and ultimately producing significant changes that would not have happened "naturally"?  

Could it be that the real changes occur within human beings, the only agents of consciousness and free will who can act with intention in response to the circumstances of the material world?

If I pray for something that does not happen, is the prayer worthless?

- S.