It’s the pits. You finally get enough money saved up to buy yourself a new car, and what happens? A tornado rips through your neighborhood and you no longer have a home. Or, you win the lotto and then find out you have cancer. It always seems like every little victory has to be mellowed by a defeat of some kind, something that ruins your plans, your dreams or even your life itself. It happens to all of us to some degree and we have to deal with it the best we can.
Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do children get leukemia, or diabetes? Why does Downs Syndrome exist? Why do people get hurt in car wrecks and have their lives uprooted by huge hurricanes? Stuff happens, to clean up a phrase, and when it does, how we deal with it is how others will measure us. Do we stand tall under the weight of the world, or do we buckle with the pressure? The answer is yes to both questions, because we all have our limits no matter how strong we are.
There comes a point in everyone’s life when he or she has to admit that help is needed. “I just can’t handle it anymore!” That’s a common complaint. What happens when you have reached that point? Well, hopefully there will be someone there who listens, who cares and who will at least attempt to help you make things right again. This is the connection we all seek. This is why so many people turn to prayer in time of need, because even if they are all alone at the time, they still need someone to talk to.
Does prayer work? People have debated that question for years and there are some conclusive and interesting answers. It is known that prayer can help a person heal, if for no other reason than to give that person something to believe in, something positive to keep them going day after day. Sure, some say that prayer is merely a crutch for the weak to stand on, and they are absolutely correct. Prayer is for the weak, not for the strong, because it is at our lowest point, when we are weakest and most vulnerable, that we need prayer the most.
When we are meek and humble, when we stumble and fall, it is then that prayer is our most powerful tool. If you pray, believing that Someone is listening and caring, then your weakness has served a very useful purpose in your life. You have successfully moved from hopeless and helpless, to relieved and functioning again, knowing that your problems have been shared with Someone who will not ignore them as if they were nothing. That is the power of prayer and it can be utilized by anyone great or small.
Yes, life can be a bowl of cherries and it can also be the pits, but it is never dull and never meaningless. Who we are is determined by where we have been, and what we have experienced, and none of us are islands unto ourselves. You can say that God is this, or He is that, or even that He does not exist at all, but that still does not change the reality of prayer, and the reality of its depth of power. Prayer is and always should be, our first resource, rather than our last resort. When we fall we must pick ourselves up again and if we can’t do that ourselves, then spit out that pit and ask for help. That’s the only way to go.