Did you think you would make plans and God would follow them obediently?
From the movie The Best of Men
We tend to want God to follow our plans. We want every prayer answered ….just the way we decided it would be. If someone dies when we expected God to heal them we lose our faith. God should not allow injustice or pain. We wonder why there is so much tragedy and where is God in all of this? Frequently this is the sticking point with agnostics or atheists. What kind of a God is this? Why believe in someone who lets things go on like this and just watches.
Unfortunately for us God doesn’t explain any of this to us. I have the feeling that even if he did we wouldn’t really understand. It can’t be explained by science or any other way we would recognize. God does answer prayer however. Sometimes the answer makes no sense. Sometimes it’s what we needed and not what we asked for. The most important answer that God gives us is himself. He comes to us in the midst of all the chaos and nothing can make him leave.
Prayer: Intimate God, help us to seek you first and foremost. Then everything else will fall into place.
Hear God in Other Voices 