Captive Thoughts

Thoughts

Last night I had an interesting (to say the least) set of events happen to me that really caused me to think.  I had 2 family members in the hospital in 2 different states for 2 different reasons.  My Aunt Neva was having gallbladder surgery here in Cincinnati and my Uncle Russ was in the hospital in Danville, KY with what they believed to be a stroke.

If I am honest I was not too worried about my Aunt Neva because the surgery is rather routine, per se and everything seemed to be good.  But when I got the call about my Uncle Russ I became very anxious and starting preparing for the worst.  Once I did some mental processing I sent an email out to a somewhat large group of friends to ask them to pray for both my Aunt and Uncle.

When writing about my Uncle and the stroke I originally wrote “pray that he has not had a stroke”.  After I wrote it I thought that was a little bold and presumptuous so I changed it  “My hope is that if it is a stroke that it has not taken away any of his memory, physical ability, or anything else.  That he can bounce back and be as strong as ever. “  I sent that email around 5:45pm.

2 hours later my Mom called and her voice was much different this time around and much to my surprise my Mom had called to inform me that my Uncle Russ did NOT have a stroke.  There are no bleeds around his brain and that he seemed fine.  I started crying because all I could think about was what I didn’t write in that email because I thought it was too presumptuous.  The answer was what I had wanted to ask for, but didn’t have the nerve.

So all that got me to thinking about prayer.

I went to Bible college and to a Christian, Southern Baptist even, university.  I have read lots of books on prayer (personally and for school) and even traveled overseas to be apart of an international prayer leaders gathering.

I have experienced prayers answered in major miraculous ways and I have experience the exact painful opposite.  I can give you all kinds of responses about prayer just like a well trained dog.  In fact here are some answers that my “training” has told me is the correct response -

Does God answer prayers? Yes.  How does He answer prayers? Yes – No – Wait aka Maybe.  Should we pray? Yes.

Why does God answer one prayer and not another? It depends on His will.

Why should I pray about something if it doesn’t matter as to what God will do or not do?  Prayer is more about communication with God and allowing yourself to change in the process.

But the truth be known, I can’t make a lick of sense out of prayer.  Just when I think I may have a clue – I realize I don’t.

I begged God for someone to live and they died within hours of that serious heartfelt prayer.

I don’t ask God for someone to not  have a stroke and they didn’t have a stroke.

I really only know 1 thing to be true of prayer – the amount of faith I may or may not have doesn’t stop God from listening.  He’s a daddy and when I talk He desires to listen.  There’s a comfort in knowing that.