Last week at church we were given a book filled with daily reflections for Lent. I hadn’t opened it until tonight. Tonight’s meditation was this,
How effective is prayer? Does it work? And when it “doesn’t,” what is your response?
I am really not a very religious person but I began to think a little more about today’s reflection on prayer. Knowing what a hard time we were going through a year ago this week, I decided to look back at what I wrote a year ago today and it had to do with us all praying for my mom and for the best outcome for her and for all of us. It was causing a lot of tension because some of us knew that the inevitable was going to happen and the others refused to give in to that. So which ones of us had our prayers answered? Kathi and I, who were hoping that she could just be out of her misery – knowing full well what that would mean for us…or my dad and brothers who were praying for her to wake up and be “normal” again? None of us wanted to lose her but in the end, were her own prayers answered? She was struggling so much with all of her breathing issues. I know that leaving us all behind was not her prayer but not being so sick had to have been.
None of us know how prayer works. I hope that some day we will all find out. For now, I have to have faith that God is listening to us and doing what is best for all of us. We might not understand it now, but we do know that he works in mysterious ways and I am confident that some day we will know the reasons behind what he has planned for all of us.
A Project for Kindness 