God, the ultimate user

by Chaplain Kathie

There was a time in my life when I thought God could just hear my prayers, click His fingers and boom, done. Prayers answered just the way I wanted them to be answered because God could do anything, anytime He wanted to.

I'm ashamed to admit, my idea of how God answers prayers changed very recently and not as a young child.

One night, I prayed to God to help with our finances. I knew He could just put a pile of cash on the floor if He wanted to. It wasn't very well thought out on my part. Then I thought about what kind of problem a huge pile of cash could cause. Serial numbers on the bills would be a huge problem because either they would be not on record, regarded as counterfeit, or would have had to have come from someone else the money really belonged to. How could I explain that to the bank? The IRS? The Secret Service? Could you imagine how fast they would lock me up if I said God gave it to me? God could have done just as I asked, but He knew better than I did.

Silly me, then I thought about a pile of gold instead. No numbers to worry about, but then again, same problem. I would have to explain where it all came from sooner or later.

I didn't ask to hit the lottery because I am no good at picking out numbers and as for picking the right scratch ticket, I usually leave that up to the clerk because there are just too many to choose from. I figure if God intends for me to win anything, well then, He can just change the numbers under the part I have to scratch off and then I'd win. So far, I lost more than I ever gained, but it was fun doing it and dreaming.

God could answer your prayers the way you want Him to, but thank God He knows a lot better than we do. We think about what we want but have a habit of not figuring out how that's going to work or if it will be good for us or not.

We pray for our elderly parents to not die, because human nature is pretty selfish and we want the people we love to stay here forever. No one would die if we had our way. Can you imagine what that would lead to?

We pray for guidance at the same time we tell God what where we want to end up out of the deal. I have to pray for obedience on top of guidance because I'm stubborn as a mule.

If I had my way, I would never need someone else to answer my prayers. I would never face a fire, have an accident, need a police officer, face a natural disaster or any act requiring any soldier to go off to war. Then again, if I had my way when we moved to Florida five years ago, Hurricanes Charlie, Francis and Jeanne would have gone some place else. I wouldn't have been in a bad accident when I was younger and needed them highway patrol on the highway or the ambulance driver getting me to the hospital, or been in a house that managed to be near a car in the driveway on fire setting fire to a wooden fence. I wouldn't have needed a police officer several times in my life either when I was beaten, when I was robbed. God didn't send all of this into my life. People and circumstances did. But God used other people to answer the prayers and needs I had. He used others to answer me.

In times of trouble we pray for help all the time. We never seem to notice that God had already made arrangements to answer those prayers and He did it by sending others to help. They heard His voice and felt the tug of their souls to do the hardest things humans are ever asked to do. To be willing to die in our place if need be.

Each person on this planet has a soul. That soul is fully equipped to do what they are intended to do. Some will follow where He leads. Others will do it their way or turn away all together.

Living among the average souls, living out simple missions of raising children, going to work on jobs that don't seem to mean anything at all, there are the remarkable souls.

The remarkable souls are filled with compassion for others. They go into emergency services driving ambulances to rescue people and get them to the hospitals where nurses and doctors wait to help them after.

They go into fire departments as either professionals or volunteers, ready to rush into a burning building to save lives or to risk their lives to save the property of someone else.

They go into law enforcement, again, ready to risk their lives to save someone, stop a crime and prepared to take a life if need be.

They go into the Coast Guard, ready to jump into raging seas to save lives.

They go into the National Guards, ready to respond to natural disasters to save lives and now in times of war, they go to foreign lands again, to help save lives of those they serve with and bring the war to an end as soon as possible, doing whatever they have to do in order to keep as many alive as possible.

They go into the military, like police officers, prepared to kill if they have to, but with the idea of protecting the others they serve with along with their countrymen back home. It is never their idea to go to war or what enemy they are to fight, but they go because they are told it's what the nation needs of them.

In all of this, they are all equipped with everything they need already inside of them for what they were intended to do.

There are those who go into the military and law enforcement, designed much like the Archangel Michael. They are the warrior type ready to kill in order to save. The compassion is there within them causing them to want to act to save and the courage to do the act itself. They also have the ability to heal already within them and they are given helpers for them to lean on in times of need. But if they do not know this, they do not know to look for the answer to their prayers or where to find it. If they misunderstand the remarkable soul sent within them, they misunderstand their lives because they misunderstand God.

There are those who go into firefighting, National Guards and as emergency responders designed much like the Archangel Gabriel. They are the messenger type sent to save lives. They have deep compassion within them and courage to do the act itself of rushing into dangers most others run from.

We would rather not need them at all, but with what some people do to others and circumstances beyond our control, God uses others to take care of the rest of us.

It's when we get things twisted and messed up in our own heads that things turn out badly. For the people helped, they can get God wrong and think He did it to them instead of He saved them and made it all less worse than it could have been.

For those He sends to help, if they get it wrong and misunderstand God, they can suffer as well but it is a far greater pain because they did what they did with the noblest intent. They can begin to feel the cuts of unimaginable horrors in times of the worst humans are capable of. In wars and in times of violence they see so much bad, it's very hard to see the good that is there in the midst of all of it. The goodness is within them and it was sent by God.

They see evil, ugly acts and wonder where God is. How can there be a loving God allowing all of this to happen? So much suffering! Would a loving God allow any of this? This is because they cannot see the good within them was sent by a loving God to face the worst man has to offer. By living with the best God has to offer within them, He is there.

The goodness within them suffers if they cannot find the healing part of them placed ahead of time by God. They question their courage because they feel so alone, so afraid, so filled with pain they forget what is inside of them. It all eats away at them and then they doubt who they really are, what they were created for and what they have to give. Then they question everything.

It all battles within them. When the soul suffers, looses the ability to connect to what was in their soul before they were sent from Heaven, nothing works right. They are still pulled by the compassion and courage to serve others at the same time pain and doubt causes them to want to pull away or run from where they are being lead.

When they re-understand God without the complications of what the world dictates, they find the goodness of God living behind the walls doubt built and the evil men are capable of fused together. They see that there were moments even in the face of terror when they knew God was there in the midst of all of it.

Prayers are heard and there can be healing but not as we want it done. The best way for it to be done according to God's greater understanding of what we do not think about. Help is sent, but not as we want it to come. It comes as God's greater understanding of how it needs to come. This requires the rest of us to listen to what we are being asked to do.

Do we listen? Do we find excuses? Do we ignore? Do we toughen our hearts instead of finding our own compassion within us? Do we refuse to look for God in the midst of trouble? It seems to me we're all guilty of wanting it all our way instead of the best ways. We let selfishness get in the way. We let greed get in the way. We let anything and everything get in the way of what we were intended to do no matter how small our contribution was supposed to be. God will not force us to do what He wants. He will use only the willing. He will try to get you to hear Him. He will try to pull you toward the road you are supposed to travel, but He will not drag you kicking and screaming against Him.

How can any of us claim we believe God was so capable of forming the entire world so perfectly it all worked together but then doubt He did not fully equip each to be able to do what they were sent to do? Albert Einstein said that he had a choice of looking at things either as everything is a miracle or nothing is. He said he'd rather see it all as a miracle. Knowing that if the world came to be one millisecond differently it wouldn't work, he knew there had to have been a greater hand doing it all.

Some read the Bible and think it was dictated by God but considering how many times in the Bible it's pointed out how the heroes in the Bible got it wrong, we need to understand that when people wrote the Bible and used the word, "day" they were not talking about 24 hours, but just time itself. They got the order of creation right but messed up on the time it took.

So how is it that we can believe all of this was put together to work right but not believe each soul sent was sent just as perfectly to do what we were sent to do? Sent with compassion to light the lives of others the same way the sun lights the earth and helps nature grow? Sent the courage to run into danger the same way the rivers and lakes feed the waterways we need to drink? Sent ears to hear the calls for help the same way He sent sound of thunder ahead of the lightening? Sent the help within the soul to recover with love what it was challenged by danger?

Everything is within us to heal if we allow ourselves to be used by the Hand that sent us here.