Train Time – # 19

Today it was the 4:50 bound for Homewood, and I’m already here just finishing this up.

“The lord does hear prayers… and he does answer them.”

From my last post “Train Time – 18”

In  my last entry we spoke a lot about the fact that the Lord hears our prayers and how important it was to have faith. This entry has to do with the next logical step to the above process.

So what happens next?

Does this mean that the problem is solved or the dream is now a reality and we can just take it easy?

I think that it all depends on what you were praying for.

Let’s say that you were praying for a solution to a problem, and the answer to your prayer made it obvious that the problem was solved. Let’s say a cured illness for example.

If you experienced the equivalent of a miracle, than I believe it is what it is: a miracle.

But following the same example, lets say the answer was a doctor’s opinion that the problem could be solved after a procedure, or a specific medication for example.

In this version, do you have reason to rejoice and feel blessed, or do you still have a problem?

This is just one example. The actual problem could be anything.

Whether it be financial problems or finding a new job or relationship issues, or a health issue, getting that warm fuzzy feeling that the problem is going to be solved is not the same as it being actually solved.

It’s almost like saying: Faith in an answered prayer will sometimes begat the need for more faith, and possibly more prayers.

I write this not to over complicate things, or to throw a kibosh on the blessing of the answered prayers, but to point out where my mind sometimes goes, and how sometimes Faith can seem to be challenged even after an answered prayer.

And, if I’m right, I’m not alone in this thinking.

Going back to the original example:

“Sure the doctor said it could be fixed but what if he’s wrong?”

Its so easy to take a perfect miracle and allow it to be turned into… nothing but a smooth patch on a seemingly endless bumpy road.

My wife calls this:
“Stinkun Thinkun!”

Always seeing the bad possibilities rather than allowing yourself to bask in the joy of a really good thing:

That God does exist.

That prayers are answered.

That if you can choose to doubt, you can choose to believe just as easy.

Like Susan Jeffers says in her wonderful book of the same name:
“Feel the fear and do it anyway”

No one ever promised this thing called life would be easy. But fear, unless you are standing in front of a moving train, is just that: a feeling. It is not a promise of things to come and you don’t have to believe what it is trying to tell you.

Choose faith, again and again.

Exercise it so that you can become accustomed to having it.

And please:

Allow joy to dwell in you and your life.