That was almost three months ago. For what it’s worth, I still get on my knees every night and pray the exact same prayers in the exact same order as I have since 1960-something, for God to keep my family SAFE. I add new people, but no one gets bumped.
I’m not writing this to brag about my commitment to prayer, but to offer a cautionary tale. Even if you shut your eyes while praying, make sure they are metaphorically wide open. Because my prayers didn’t “work!”
I’m coming to the realization that one can plan and one can pray, but there’s no magic and no guarantees — this is a difficult concept for self-diagnosed Control–Freaks to wrap our heads around.
In my senior year of college, I wrote a paper entitled, “The Juxtaposition of Our Human Free Will with God’s Foreknowledge.” It was a difficult thesis to write at the time. I never came to a decisive conclusion then and I’m no closer to one today.
I don’t know exactly how prayers are supposed to “work.” Or how they are supposed to sound for that matter. Formulated or unformulated. Knees or no knees. Catholic or Protestant.
But I do still believe all prayers are heard.
Apparently, in life, there are certain things that are just going to happen. But I certainly don’t believe God laughed that morning as we sat naively sipping coffee and making plans that were never to be.
The God I pray to probably cried a tiny little bit.