Train Time: # 22

Today, it’s the 4:35, bound for Homewood.

And…

Today it’s the “F” word…

Again…

And no, it’s not sexual…

It’s rated “G” for…

Thank God it works…

Yes, we are discussing “faith”.

It’s nothing new to hear me say:

“Faith is easy when you don’t need it, and sometimes seems impossible when you do”.

Look…

let’s start by prefacing this article with the following statement:

I am a religious person. But I don’t spend a lot of time spouting off to the world about God, and how blessed I am, and trying to convert the world to my way of thinking.

If you ask me, I won’t lie, but beyond that, I just figure that, for the most part, people don’t really want to be preached to. Push too hard on the whole “God hears your prayers” thing, and you might just end up pushing them farther away.

I guess my point here is: if I take the time to start preaching uninvited, them there is a good chance that I might be on to something that I at least believe is worth hearing.

The paradox here is that most people of “faith” will begin by telling you that sometimes, when you ask God, he answer is no!

And, I’m sure that is correct.

I’m sure that the answer to the prayer:

“God I wish my boss were dead”

Might not be answered in the affirmative.

Even something as seemingly innocent as:

“God, please give me a million bucks”

Might not come true… at least not like you might expect it too.

For example:

The last request might not result in money falling from the sky into your lap…
But it may result in getting ideas on how acquiring that kind of dough might be possible.

Hence the second and possibly most important part of faith:

How important is this request, and what are you willing to do to achieve it…

Too often, I believe that too many people pray, and then feel like their prayer went unanswered because it didn’t fall into their lap after the first amen.

Another element of faith is simply, how do you feel?!

I think that too often this is where I fail.

I ask for faith, and ask that something will work out, and then assume that if I am still afraid, I must have fallen short somehow: I must not be worthy…

To this I am finally learning to say:

“Bunk”

The key here is, the feeling of fear, is just that: a feeling. It is our folly to assume that this feeling reflects reality. It is also our folly to assume that the lack of instant results means God said no or worse yet, didn’t hear us at all.

As I m running out of “train time” this trip, I will get to my personal revelation of this ramble:

Faith is hard:

Sometimes painfully hard…

But It works!

And to follow up…

God may not answer prayers like we want…

But I believe he always does answer them, and if we learn to really listen, and do our part…

We will NEVER be left wanting.

To quote one of my favorite songs:

“Thank you God for thinkun bout me, I’m alive and doin fine”

From:  “Signs”, a song by “Five Man Electrical Band” Recorded: 1971