Even Jesus Didn't Have His Prayers Answered

Do you ever get frustrated with prayer?

I do.

There are so many things I pray for that seem to fit the will of God, at least in a moral sense. For example, I pray for people to come to Christ, a prodigal child to come back to his faith, a marriage to be restored. Many, many times the answer is: NO. Now, I know I am not alone in this. But it never occured to me that even Jesus experienced it too.

In Gesthemane, he asked the Father if he might spare him the cross.

No.

In John 17, beginning with v. 2o, Jesus prays for the unity of all believers. Now, you could inpterpret this a number of ways I suppose, but if you just think of denominations, schisms over spirtual gifts, etc. (not to mention the Reformation), it seems like once again:

No.

So if Jesus didn't have all this prayers answered, why should I?

Why should you?

What do you think?

Heroes

It's been a while....very busy these days.

"We used to be a nation of pioneers. Now we are a nation of victims and plaintiffs."-unknown

What a great quote. In some of my reading on raising kids, I came across the idea that the heroes we are raised on can have a great impact
on our future aspirations. I thought of the men I loved to imitate as a kid: Zorro, Superman, Sgt. Saunders 0f Combat !(all baby boomers remember that show!) ...and Davy Crockett. Who do kids have to emulate today? Spongebob? Raven? I honestly can't think of a kid's show with a bonafide hero who each week models integrity, valor, and sacrifice (Spiderman, etc. is not for young kids-even the cartoons can be a little edgy sometimes.)

Above is my son and his best friend, ready for another round of Davy Crockett adventures, complete with long rifles, powder horns, and coonskin caps. They have watched the old Disney series on DVD and loved it. For months and months they were out practicing their marksmanship, fighting river pirates, and yes, even Indians (er, Native Americans) We have read his biography too. Crockett was quite a guy and embraced faith in God as well as integrity. He even served in the U.S. Congress, not an easy place to live out those qualites! Though fighting Indians may not seem very PC, you will find he only did it in self defense. He fought Pres. Andrew Jackson's policies on relocating the Eastern tribes while he served in Congress, which earned him much trouble from the angry president(he thought it was a crime to take away their lands). His death at the Alamo is well known, though shrowded in mystery. Regardless of how he died, he went there to help the underdogs, something he seemed to have a passion for.

So will all this have a positive impact on my son? Well, he's only 10, but I have already seem him insist on fair play in all sorts of situations and even stand up for the underdogs on his soccer team, etc. He has a ton of compassion for others, prays readily, and has no desire to really hurt anybody, but knows he may have to to protect others. Obviously, I hope this is mostly due to his Christian upbringing and the Holy Spirit in his life. But it doesn't hurt to have a flesh and blood hero to admire.

And he knows ol' Davy's motto by heart: "Be sure your'e right, and then go ahead!" All in all, not a bad philosophy of life.

Thanks Davy. We could use a few more heroes like you.