God doesn’t have call waiting*

Sun-behind-cloudsHaving a power outage gives you time to talk to your spouse.

There’s no television, no computer, no cordless telephone…there’s no distractions.

So my wife and I had a conversation down in the kitchen about a lot of things.  We usually talk about everything under the sun anyway…it just was a little quieter than usual without the Autobots to supply the soundtrack.

One of the topics we touched on was…God.  How can you not talk about God?  He’s a big topic.

Our talk got me thinking…I bet that God doesn’t have call waiting.  Now…I’m not sure…there’s a lot about God that I don’t understand….but I bet there isn’t a time when He says, “can you hold on a second?  I’ve got a call coming in on the other line…Oh…it’s the new Priest.  Can I call you back?  Where are you going to be in a couple of minutes?”

I just can’t picture Him putting us off like that.

Now, I do think that we suppose that if we get a form down right…or pick the right context…or clean our prayer closet…or do anything that we feel is going to open the channels of communication a little better…that He’s going to hear us and respond.

My first year working at summer camp in the NC mountains, a friend fell down a waterfall on the camp property.  He got hurt pretty badly and eventually died.

I remember we had prayer vigils.  I was out in the woods,in the dark… praying so hard that I thought I’d give myself a stroke.  My efforts could be the thing that saved him.  I guess that’s what faith is all about…even if I didn’t really understand anymore about it than I do now. I know my prayers were heard…my friend was just too damaged to survive the fall.

There’s a lot of disappointment in watching a friend die after you’ve pleaded with God for things to be alright.  I don’t think that we’re really allowed to be disappointed with God…so we move it all onto ourselves.  “I must not have done something right”.  It had to be me…some shortcoming on my part that didn’t allow the miracle to take place.

That’s a big, ego-fueled burden to take on.

Anyway…enough stories.  I guess that what I’m mulling over is that God answers prayer in his own way.  That’s not a great revelation…nothing that a kazillion people through time haven’t concluded already.

I think that what I have realized is that if we can’t get out of our own heads a little…can’t quiet the noise within and around us down a little…we can’t ever see the answers that He does provide because we’re too busy looking for the answers that we expect.

Our only reference is this earthly one…blood and bone, earth and sky…so to suspect that we’re even close to understanding God is misinformed…(or should I say Gaawwwwwwwddddduh…that’s how the preachers around here might yell it).

We, hopefully, do the best we can.  We seek God …always knocking on doors, missing some openings because we’re too scattered and busy looking for the next door to knock on.

I suspect that God must cut us a lot of slack.

 

*God probably has whatever package He wants…probably has Caller ID, too…I just don’t think that He screens his calls.

 

About Peter Rorvig

I'm a non-practicing artist, a mailman, a husband, a father...not listed in order of importance. I believe that things can always get better....and that things are usually better than we think.

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