Every day of our lives brings some sort of challenge or struggle.
As young people we exert ourselves to get the education we need to fulfill our dream for the future.
Later, most of us search for a job that will support us. These days that could be very difficult. Even when we are employed, our job situation keeps changing, bringing new problems to deal with. We may want to change employers, which is also hard.
Some are looking for a life mate, perhaps someone to start a family with. Living by yourself can be lonely.
For older people, there are increasing health questions, not to mention enough money for retirement.
From time to time, we feel inadequate for our constant battles. We would rather duck or dodge, or go into a hole to avoid our difficulties; so we may distract ourselves with music, entertainment, drink, drugs, busy-ness. But escape is not a permanent solution. Eventually, we need to find a way out.
Our family and friends can provide help and comfort. But sometimes, our total resources seem insufficient. We feel we are near the end of our rope. We doubt whether we can survive these intractable troubles.
In such difficult situations we may ask is any help available from beyond us? Can a thoughtful well-read person really believe there a God who cares about us?
These knotty questions have bedeviled scholars and priests since time immemorial. Different religions (or different denominations) provide dissimilar responses. However, there is widespread agreement at least that there is real wisdom and help to be found beyond the human sphere.
Ultimately, such questions become intensely personal, involving ME and GOD (or whatever name you may call the Higher Power). As a university student, I started out thinking that it was just ME alone, with no Greater Intelligence out there. But that answer didn’t prove satisfactory for long, so I started searching every philosophy and religion to find a framework for understanding my life. After a decade of investigation, I returned reluctantly to my ancestral spiritual tradition for language, concepts and wisdom to deal with my life’s challenges.
I started to pray, even while my doubts remained about who or what was out there to listen. I prayed about my work, about my health, for protection from danger, for friends in trouble. I prayed for peace to still my anxious mind.
My spiritual journey has gradually taken me to better places, even though struggles and challenges remain. Like most retired people, I have watched my income shrink. I face health issues, due to after effects of the crippling polio I suffered at age five. I am struggling now to become a writer, which is a new and difficult task.
I continue to pray and I have started to record my responses. I prayed recently for the sale of a property after the real estate market had collapsed but surprisingly got a customer. I prayed about some new entrepreneurial aspirations and got the clear answer I needed for my future direction.
Prayer however, is a humbling experience; and it requires humility to start praying. Imagine addressing a Being far higher than any president or prime minister. That is enough to make any soul tremble.
As the Rolling Stones’ song says,
No you can’t always get what you want;
but if you try sometimes,
you might find
you get what you need.
None of us would expect a thunderbolt from Heaven with a clear and immediate answer to every question and to every request. But something changes inside of us when we pray. Occasionally the change is external and dramatic.
In our hopeless despair, the greatest wisdom is going to the Ultimate Source
