Opus 2026-512: Prayer Quandaries

I’m going through one of those periods of time when I ask myself, “Why pray?”  The answer that will finally come out with, if you’re curious, is because we’re told to pray.  I am almost giving up in expecting results.  How does that affect the aspect of faith in prayer?

I’m looking at a growing list of people who I prayed for and the answer seems to be they died.  Sometimes that’s no big deal.  One man was 82 died from stomach cancer.  The problem wasn’t that he died as much as the fact that the miserable doctors let him go for a year complaining about the condition and then when they finally got around and looking at it they said, “Oh, nothing we can do.”  The second was 84.  He had some kind of progressive lung condition, which meant that he knew he was going to die.  He was on an oxygen tube toward the end, but was still in church a week and a half before they sent him to hospice and he succumbed quickly.  It would’ve been nice for him to be healed, but again he was at the end of the road and rejoicing in the Lord.

Then there is the four-year-old.  Childhood leukemia was the problem.  My understanding is that the medical profession is made good strides on treating childhood leukemia.  I had great hopes with the little boy.  He died.  Those are the kind of things that make you really wonder what’s going on?

I’ve been around people who’ve gotten bitter when things like this happen.  I’ve been around people who renew their faith and go on with joy and hope.  I’m not sure what the actual personal difference is, but I know the one that went on with hope had a strong faith and trust in God.  It makes a difference.

Ultimately, we rely on the wisdom of God and the fact that He knows what He’s doing and where He’s going.  Since I am a man of faith, that is enough for me:  I pray because I am told too.

homo unius libri