working on God's time

Far be it from me to link to my own blog, but I can't help it... something struck me today.

and when you pray - a comment

Typically I will check my own blog periodically for a couple of days after a posting to see if there are any comments, because I love feedback. Sometimes I just want to know if I am the only one thinking something, perhaps to see if what I said makes sense or if I am just rambling incoherently. So, anyway, more to the point - after a couple of days I usually stop checking old posts for comments. Today was a different story though, I went back to look for a post where I had a couple comments so that I could verify some formatting stuff on the blog that I was curious about, and lo and behold I came across a post where I didn't remember there being a comment! The link above is the post in question, and for me that post and the one following it were especially meaningful. Sometimes I think God answers prayers only when we are primed and ready to hear the answer, and this was no exception. This past Sunday, Frank gave a great sermon on the topic of prayer: how its not often a crucial part of our lives and why we should pray (what are the benefits, so to speak). If after reading that summary and then reading my linked post you get the feeling they are somewhat closely related... I came to the same conclusion. While I won't imply that my post spawned a sermon, I will say that my post prepared me to hear a sermon on prayer that prepared me to hear some commentary on the subject. To hear that something I said shook up someone else because even they struggled with the same issue was enlightening, and that kind of feedback is always affirming for your own journey. I think the point was driven home for me even more however because Frank's sermon about prayer was 2 weeks after the original post was made, just over a week after the comment was added, and I didn't read the comment till today. I get the feeling that the time between the comment and the sermon was spent meditating on the struggle. To draw a parallel, have you ever watched a movie, documentary, behind-the-music, or read something where the flow of the story starts from the end result and then jumps back to the beginning? Sometimes this can ruin a story, knowing the how things end, but sometimes it can be all the more revealing. You know how things end, but how you end up there and all the stories and experiences that build up to that point can drive home the point even harder sometimes. You are immediately confronted with the present day situation, but the backstories all fill in the gory details - struggles, successes, wins, losses, and all that drama. I heard the end result, someone stopped and thought "hey, if there is at least one other person who struggles with prayer I bet there are more, and I wonder what could be done to encourage them all." Then I went back having heard this and found out the reason they understood the problem so well was because they too shared my struggle.

Oh what a tangled web... unknowningly helping someone, who then in turn unknowingly helps you back two-fold. I think it's this give and take, partnership/colleague/equal-footing relationship mode of operation that allows us all to truly make an impact on the world. Playing off and learning from each other's strengths and weaknesses is such a powerful and sometimes under-utilized tool....

I believe the old saying goes, "God works in mysterious way," but I think more appropriately it would be that God works in obvious ways, but on a perfectly unorthodox timeline.

Thanks Frank, and I will pray for you ;)