17-year-old dies in crash
October 26, 2010Graduated driver licensing: What’s it all about?
October 28, 2010A mule fell into an old dry well. Thinking the fall probably severely injured the mule and therefore not worth rescuing, the farmer backed his truck up to the well and dumped a load of dirt down on the animal. When the dirt hit the mule, it simply shook its back and began tramping down on the dirt.
Seeing what the mule had done and observing that the animal had raised itself a few inches, the farmer got several more loads of dirt and dumped them into the well. The mule shook off the dirt and tramped it down until the mule could walk right out of the well as if nothing had happened.
That story teaches us the important lesson of never admitting defeat, never giving up.
That was Jesus’ attitude when he told us “to pray always and never lose heart.” (Luke 18:1) However, sometimes God can seem very distant. Here is an example.
Gerald Sittser was a professor of religion and philosophy. One September morning, he prayed his usual prayer asking God to protect and bless his family.
Later that afternoon, returning from a family outing, a drunk driver lost control of his car and smashed into the Sittser’s minivan. Sittser’s wife Lynda, his daughter Diana Jane, and his mother, who was visiting for the weekend, were all killed in the collision.
This is Sittser’s reflection concerning that tragic day.
“To this day I have been unable to understand what made that day different. What prevented my prayers from getting through to God? Did I commit some unpardonable sin? Did I fail to say the right words? Did God suddenly turn against me? Why, I have asked myself a thousand times, did my prayer go unanswered?”
Later, he wrote an article on unanswered prayer.
He said, “There is more to life than meets the eye when God gets involved. God works things out for good. We view unanswered prayer from the perspective of our immediate experience and our limited vision. But God is doing something so great that only faith can grasp it, wait for it, and pray for it.”
Clearly, Gerald Sittser needed a strong faith to persevere in prayer.
So do we? How many of us have had tragic and sad situations come into our lives? Though we prayed that things would be different, nothing seemed to happen.
The logical thing for us would be to give up on prayer. After all, we are practical people. If something does not work, then we either try to fix it or throw it away.
Most of us do not give up. We continue to pray, trusting that God will somehow make everything right. It would not make any sense to pray unless we believe in God. Prayer is, primarily, an act of faith. Prayer grows out of faith, and helps faith to grow.
I would like to close with a quotation from Mahatma Gandhi.
“I am neither a man of letters nor of science, but I humbly claim to be a man of prayer. It is prayer that has saved my life. Without it I would have lost my reason long ago. If I did not lose my peace of soul, in the midst of my many trials, it is because of the peace that came to me through prayer. One can live several days without food, but not without prayer. Prayer is the key to each morning, and the lock to each evening. It is a sacred alliance between God and us. Let everyone try this experience, and they will find that daily prayer will add something new to their lives, something that cannot be found elsewhere.”
Perseverance in prayer will win the battles of life.
