“I do believe in God. I think God has given so much power

 to people, and intelligence, and said, 'Well, you are on your

 own. Maybe I'm tired, I need a nap. You are mature.

 Why don't you look after yourselves?' 

And I think He's been sleeping too much.”

from: Strength In What Remains

by: Tracy Kidder

This is me again..being an infant on the subject of prayer.
I visit this topic frequently.

So here it goes.... again.

I doesnt matter what I want, or what it is I think I need. It seem futile to me to 'ask' for anything. For as I understand things, God knows best, and I do not. God has the big picture. I do not.
So what is prayer?
The other day..while attending Stake Conference, I heard the speaker make an analogy for prayer. He used the symbol of a racquetball. He asked us to  picture  hitting a racquetball softly against the wall of the court, and to imagine how slowly the ball would then return to us.  Then he asked us to picture us hitting that ball with all the force we could muster, and to then imagine how quickly and forceably the ball would come back at us. His comparison went on...as he asked  us to envision  us lying down at night and mumbling a prayer without heart or intent..a weak plea, a weak hit.  How would the return look?  Then he asked us to think about an ardent and forceful, humble prayer...and couldnt we then imagine a 'return' with greater force?

Im asking....Does deliverance influence God in any way?
How does one pray with force when one already knows that its served back to us on the 'opponents' terms? (I cringe at the term 'opponent' for I dont believe on any level that God is an opponent. But go with me a bit more on this) So Im thinking that prayer isnt so much like racquetball as it is like tennis.  We are in control of the velocity of the racquetball we hit...but the wall is inademate.  In the game of tennis, we are at the mercy of our opponent and how he decides to lob the ball back at us.
Personal example:
Asking with force, fervor, tears, pain to have our business grow enough to support us, has been  an on going battle of wills for 2 years now. As a matter of fact...4 'players' are sending up that plea. God is listening. I believe that He is.  And yet He serves to us what He pleases.
And can you picture the pleading and anguish that God hears every night as we plead for the cure for cancer, or for  help with struggling kids?!  I suppose the return serve comes back..but its unrecognizable most times... its out of our league, and its never usually a forceful, record setting event.
Prayer is so very, very, very, very hard for me. Im not a fan of  vain repetitions. Im not much of a conversationalist either. If God already knows the answer before I ask...why ask, I ask?  I know He knows my heart, and I feel confident that He has already decided what to do in my "game."  No amount of pleading is going to make a difference. (and what if I were to ask amiss!!!??)
I already know that Im here on this earth to learn patience, humility and more patience. I've known this for a very long time. My game seems to be learning how to be happy in each moment, even though these moments look nothing like I expected or planned on.
Again,..will my asking God to help with kids who struggle have an affect on the  kids who also have a game plan not of my understanding...who have the right and gift to choose what they want?  They have choices and God has a plan for them. My prayers wont and maybe shouldnt change their 'game'.
My best attempts at prayer are always the thankfulness prayers, the gratitude prayers. Those come easily for me, and I suppose its important to be thankful.
Its the asking thats so very difficult. Its just like asking anything of my earthly father...its difficult. ( Counseling may be order)
Life is what it is. I suppose Im a bit of a fatalist. God has set me on a course, to prove and to try me. I have to make my way through...with as much gratitude as I can muster and with some flavor of hope.
Shall I pray for hope? Maybe thats the answer.
Stop praying for change; for money or puppies, or trips ...seriously though..I dont pray for these things...just success and happiness. Instead I should pray for the feelings of hope, and for peace where Im at. I could probably hit that prayer/ball right out of the park!!!
God...please grant me hope. Hope in the future..hope for the kids, and hope for friends who struggle with insurmountable trails and battles with cancer.

H-O-P-E

I think Im going to find a ball,...and write in great big letters with a Sharpee across it....H-O-P-E, and tuck it under my pillow.

"The fact is," Barras said, assuming his Director's tone, "it costs us a great 

deal to keep our men in arms. Over half our revenues go to the Ministry of War.

 A standing army of five hundred thousand requires...how much would you

 guess a day, simply in sacks of wheat? Over six hundred," he said,not waiting

 for a guess. "Six hundred and fifty," Ouvrand corrected. "Seven hundred head

 of cattle, seventy thousand sacks of oats- a day. 

 The horses alone require two million bales a day."

 from: Tales of Passion Tales of Woe

 by: Sandra Gulland

WEEKEND PEACE FRIENDS!!!

Today Is:

International Peace Day

The world is full enough of hurts and mischances

without wars  to multiply them.

from: The Return of the King

by: J.R.R. Tolkien

Sabbath Reflections

Peace, not only the peace between nations or quarreling parties but also the sense of peace that seeks a permanent home in our hearts and soul, is a conscious decision, a mindful, deliberate act.  Peace is recognition of our mutual imperfections. Peace is our awareness and appreciation of each other and our shared need for human contact.  Peace is not a a complicated concept reserved for theologians, scholars, philosophers and politicians to understand or achiever for us, but something we are called to as humans.
from: My Hope for Peace
by: Jehan Sadat

 Where can I turn for peace?
Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice,
I draw myself apart,
Searching my soul?

 Where, when my aching grows,
Where, when I languish,
Where, in my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.

He answers privately,
Reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
Constant he is and kind,
Love without end.

Text: Emma Lou Thayne, b. 1924. 

The Whale… If you read a recent front page story of the San Francisco Chronicle, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth. A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around as she was thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.)


(I hope this is a true story...I want to believe it's a true story.)

"Anyone who thinks ending war is naive hasn’t put enough thought into it. What’s naive is to think that wars can continue and humanity will survive. It’s naive to think the planet is a limitless resource. It’s naive to think that we can create ever more powerful means of killing each other and not destroy the planet."

—

- Veteran Paul Chappell

There are years that ask questions

and years that answer.

from: Their Eyes Are Watching God

by: Zora Hurston

From his series A Year at War

Red safety lights came on in the cargo hold of a C-17 military transport as one of nine waves of soldiers makes its final descent into Afghanistan.

Damon Winter, photographer

Comment from my bro Joe:
I just finished an interesting book about the ‘pilgrims’ and the Mayflower. About 40 years after they arrived their relationship with the natives went really bad – and a war that lasted about 4 years started. History calls it the ‘King Phillip War’ because one of the Indian leaders’ name was King Phillip. It was brutal (like most wars – except the ones we are in now) - Anyway when it was all over the death rate for the English pilgrims (not Americans yet) was about 9% - worse even than the Civil War. The death rate for the Indians is estimated to be about 25%.

A U.S. serviceman’s chance of death in battle, per Nicholas Hobbes’ Essential Militaria (2003):

• War of Independence: 2 percent (1 in 50)
• War of 1812: 0.8 percent (1 in 127)
• Indian Wars: 0.9 percent (1 in 106)
• Mexican War: 2.2 percent (1 in 45)
• Civil War: 6.7 percent (1 in 15)
• Spanish-American War: 0.1 percent (1 in 798)
• World War I: 1.1 percent (1 in 89)
• World War II: 1.8 percent (1 in 56)
• Korean War: 0.6 percent (1 in 171)
• Vietnam War: 0.5 percent (1 in 185)
• Persian Gulf War: 0.03 percent (1 in 3,162)

This is the most powerful video I've seen in a VERY long time. Its better than Conference!!!
Amazing!! God is great!!! Enjoy!!!

If things go wrong with a puzzle, identifying the

culprits is easy; its the person who withheld

information. Mysteries, though, are a lot murkier;

sometimes the information we've been given is

inadequate, and sometimes we aren't very smart about

making sense of what we've been given, and sometimes

the question itself cannot be answered. Puzzles

come to satisfying conclusions. Mysteries often dont.

from: What the Dog Saw

by: Malcolm Gladwell

I would love more than anything to have a "conversation" on what people are thinking and what they know about whats going on in Egypt!?  What does it mean for us?  What does  the 'revolution' do for the people of Egypt  a year from now and in 10 yrs from now?  What are the repercussions for Israel? Do we (Americans) need to pick sides? Is it our job to spread democracy?  As an ignorant, ill-informed person looking in...it seems that what has happened in the last 20 days is a good thing, a really good thing.  Am I right?  And if I am, why? (can you tell that I dont really trust the mainstream media?!)
I found this photo and an opinion HERE, and then I wondered what kind of site this is Im visiting. Where to you go for your news information?  I just dont know enough!!!  Any thoughts and ideas and wisdom!!!?? Please share!!!

In War, there are no unwounded soldiers

-Jose Narosky

Heather McClintock, photographer




I never asked to go to any war. So, why go at all? Because I believe that images can make a difference in our world. Thus, when we raise the camera to our eye we should seek to see with our heart. The sound of the shutter is my silent prayer.

From the series War in Iraq. David Leeson, photographer

waiting- 1940 shorpy brition

Circa 1896. "U.S.S. Massachusetts crew at mess."

1918. Washington, D.C. "Walter Reed Hospital scenes

U.S. Air Force medical technician Rachel Reidel pauses in “Heroes Hall,” on May 8, 2010, a place where injured service members were encouraged to pay tribute to fallen comrades while waiting to be evacuated to Germany, at the Air Force Theater Hospital at Joint Base Balad, Iraq.