abcowboy

It’s hard to measure what faith can do for you and it’s even harder to prove. But on the same hand, even though I can’t prove what God has done for me, no one can disprove it either. And there lies the battle both inward and outward about faith and God. As human beings, we tend to always want tangible proof as to why things happen, what makes things work, but why can’t we accept them for just what they are? Some things just can’t be explained. And I’ll give you an example. When I worked full time at our local College, a young male student was found dead early one morning in the common TV room. It was a shock and surprise to his family, friends, fellow students, and all the staff. Of course we cordoned the area off, put sheets up on all the windows, and kept the scene as close to “clean” as we could till the RCMP arrived and took over. A few months later, everyone learned that the autopsy could find no cause of death! Nothing was out of order with the young man. There appeared to be no reason as to why he died. Now imagine yourself as one of the parents, how do you move forward from that? We all want and need answers to our questions, but what if there are none? That is where faith comes in. I believe that God had other plans for this young man, and that is good enough for me to get me through.

And on prayer and the power of prayer. Again, it’s hard to prove and equally as hard to disprove the power of prayer. I’ve had people, in 3d and online who tell me that they pray and pray but God doesn’t listen. I’m not sure there’s a right or wrong way to pray, but I think if I keep asking God to do things for me, leave it up to Him to make everything in my life easy, my prayers will probably go unanswered. I don’t think God does the work for you, I think we need to ask Him for the tools to help make the work easier for ourselves. I know years ago I prayed to God to take away my compulsion to drink, if He had anything to do with me being an alcoholic, then He also had the power to “cure” me. I don’t think it works that way.

Then one fateful night, He did answer my prayer. No, He didn’t “cure” me. No, He didn’t remove my compulsion to drink. But I think He did answer my prayers because I prayed differently. I didn’t ask Him to do the work, I asked Him for the strength and courage to be able to do the work myself. I was sure that all I needed was a bit of guidance from Him to use the tools I had to get sober. It worked, and I know I can’t prove it, but no one will convince me otherwise.

As I’ve said before, and I’ll keep saying it, if you continue to struggle, if you think you are hopeless and ready to give up, why not give prayer a chance. But you have to believe that there is a chance in prayer. Remember, God won’t do the work for you, but He’ll give you what you need to do it yourself! I know, because it happened to me!

I know there are lots of people who are still struggling and I don’t always have something to say, so I put the words in a poem as I took some time to pray…