APR, MAY, JUN 2024 VOLUME 17 Issue 2
BACK in 2005, Hurricane Katrina did a lot of damage and displaced a lot of people. It was one of those natural catastrophes that none of us can control. We just deal with the aftermath and begin the process of starting over. The thing I didn’t know then that I know now is that life is full of dealing with “aftermaths” and “starting overs”! Hurricane Katrina was a catalyst for change in my life. God used the circumstances surrounding it to teach me a valuable lesson on prayer and my own will.
My wife, who had just gone through breast cancer a year prior, came to me after the storm, after the clean-up, and informed me she wanted to move to live closer to her family. She is the love of my life—an answer to not only mine but my parent’s prayers as well. This was our dream home that we had built together, and I didn’t want to move! She proclaimed that the appeal of the house and property we had built for a photography business was gone along with all the majestic oak trees. The beautiful trees had dotted the property before Katrina. It looked like a barren wasteland now, and no one would want to come to our home for photographs. She wanted to go live by her only family who were in Petal, MS. Her sister had even found a house and property that would be perfect for us. She begged me to at least “Pray about it.”
I did not!
Two weeks went by, and she approached me and asked, “Have you prayed about it?”
What? How dare she question me, the spiritual leader of my home! “No,” I replied, “I don’t want to move.”
She said, “If you will honestly pray about it and ask God for His guidance, I will abide by whatever you say He tells you.”
I hate when they do that! Now I have no choice. I’ve got to pray about it.
I was truly honest with God about it and told Him I feared what He was going to tell me; but I did want what was best for my family and not just my own self. I asked that our home would sell in a certain price range and within a specific time frame. My wife and our realtor thought I was crazy—which I am—but I told them I had prayed about it. If it was God’s will for us to move, we would!
Yes, I had a nasty attitude, and nobody was more shocked than my wife and Realtor when the first couple to see our house came back and agreed to our price two weeks later!
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prayed for things that I felt were ignored, but looking back I can now see the wisdom of our heavenly Father in every situation. Most times we just want God’s will to line up with our own, instead of ours with His. We forget the mysterious ways in which He works. You know, prayer is not a magic trick to get what you want and avoid things you don’t want. When you are honest, sincere, and willing to accept the outcome of His will regardless of whether it was in your favor or not, you have your prayers answered every time!
