What A Life

There is a story about a mule that had fallen into an old dry well. Thinking the fall probably severely injured the mule and therefore it was 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 is what Jesus was trying to teach us when he told us the parable of the unjust judge who gave the widow her due because of her persistence. She refuses to give up and asked the judge to grant her justice against her opponent. Jesus told us that we “ought to pray always and never lose heart.”

We can learn two lessons from this story: 1. Persistent prayer is the way to pray. Jesus does not want us to be casual about prayer, but serious, intentional, determined and disciplined. Jesus wants us to be diligent in our prayer life. For in prayer we draw closer to the One who is the source of every good and perfect gift. In prayer we claim our dependence upon God, and acknowledge our full desire for God’s gifts that give us abundant life.

2. Persistent prayer is faith-inspired prayer. Children will only make demands on a parent who loves and provide for them. They know that if they ask their father for bread, he will not give them a stone; if they ask for a fish, he will not give them a snake. In the same way, those who pray persistently to God, have faith that God will answer them. They trust that the Lord will grant them the fullness of life.

However, persistent prayer is not a list of greedy “give-mes.”

There is a big difference between our needs and our wants. Many people want to win the lottery. However, that request is greedy. “Lord, help me get through this day” is a prayer of need, asking for God’s presence, God’s power and God’s peace in our lives. The person praying to God for the right thing to be done in his or her life, can count on a favorable response.

When Senator Hubert Humphrey was fighting cancer and losing the battle some years ago, he wrote an article entitled, “You Can’t Quit!” He wrote, “My faith and hope get me from day to day. The biggest mistake people make is giving up.

Adversity is an experience, not a final act. Some people look upon any setback as an end. They’re always looking for the benediction rather than the invocation. Most of us have enough problems so that almost any day we could fold up and say, ‘I’ve had it.’ But you can’t quit.”

Toward the end of the article he said, “I feel that not all of my life is in my own hands. There is a power beyond us – Divine Providence, the will of God. It is a powerful source of strength if you can get in tune with it. Like anybody else’s, my faith is sometimes rocked. When I’m feeling low, I draw strength from the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. Part of it says, ‘Where there is doubt, let me sow faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.'”