I feel down in the dumps when life takes an unexpected twist, or something happens that catches me off guard. Maybe I should have seen it coming or I did see it coming but closed my eyes and hoped it would not happen. I am left depressed and unhappy, casting about for a way out of a dilemma which may or may not have been of my making. Everything I do seems to make matters worse. I can be philosophical about it but being philosophical does not make things better.
Sometimes I wish that I had a magic wand which I could wave to set things to right. But I am not God and God does not need a magic wand to put things right. All God has to do is will it and it happens.
When things go awry, we pray that God will do that, but God may in his wisdom chose not to grant what we ask. We keep persevering in pray as Jesus taught us, knocking on God’s door late at night and asking for bread, pestering God like the widow pestered the unjust judge until he granted her plea. “Please God, set things to right.”
If God does not answer our prayer favorably right away, God may not be telling us “no.” He may be saying, “Wait, now is not the right time.” God may also be saying, “Do you really want what you are asking? Do you know what you’ll be getting into? It may be a lot of pain, anguish, sadness, and heartache.” God may be willing to grant what we are asking, but he wants us to be sure we understand what we are getting into.
God cares about us, but he also cares about other people, those who may be involved in our prayer. Granting what we ask may not only affect our life but their lives too. God may want to shield them from hurt and may want to satisfy himself that we will do right by them.
What do we do? We keep praying. Prayer is not a one-way conversation. God talks as well as listens. We may not hear an audible voice, but God does reply to us. We may have an impression in our mind or a feeling in our inner self, God is saying, “Do really want what you are asking? If so, now is not the time.”
We may be left crestfallen. We were hoping that God would immediately grant our prayer.
I write a lot about loving others, our neighbors, those who are unfriendly toward us, those who outright hate us and wish us ill, and our brothers and sisters in Christ. I also write about loving those who occupy a special place in our hearts.
When I write about loving the latter, I am not writing about romantic love or sexual love. I am writing about having a genuine fondness and affection for them as a person, caring about their welfare; having concern and empathy for them, grasping from where they may be coming and putting ourselves in their place, in their heads and in their hearts; doing our best to understand them; to show them respect, kindness, and trust; to be there for them when they need someone; to support and to encourage them; to generously give them our time and attention; to see the good in them, the good which God has gifted them; to help them when they need help; to be someone in whom they can confide and whom they can trust.
I must admit that that may not always be easy to do but with God’s help it is what we seek to do. We may make mistakes. Those who occupy that special place in our hearts may misunderstand us. Our blind spots, those areas in which we fail to exercise good judgment or in which we do not recognize and understand the difference between one thing and another, may create problems for us.
Having decided to love them, we keep on loving them. God loves us the same way. While our love cannot be compared to God’s, we seek to emulate his love.
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