Category: Bargaining

Knocking on Heaven’s Door

Post author By admin
Post date July 25, 2022
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Pushing the Limit

Driving along the highway in my little yellow bug, I find I’m always pushing the limit – the speed limit, that is. If it’s 50 k/h, I bump it up to 60. If it’s 60 k/h, I take it to 70. 80, to me, means keep it under 100. Driving along recently, in my meditative state, I thought about how we push the limit in so many ways. The quick check-out at the grocery store – ‘no more than 12 items’ – we sneak through with 15…or more. ‘No trespassing!’ ‘Do not walk on the grass!’ If we’re not actually breaking, we’re at least bending the rules more often than not. Even in the ways we pray and talk to God – we push.

In prayer, it seems, we are always bargaining, but God must be used to that. Look at the way God and Abraham haggled over Sodom. Being fed up with the sinfulness of the place, God planned to destroy it. Abraham dared to argue with the Lord – “But what if there are 50 just people to be found there? Would you wipe them away too, along with the wicked?”

“Well, no,” says God, “for the sake of the fifty, I would not destroy the city.” Abraham wears God down with his haggling and God, walking away (and throwing up his hands, no doubt) agrees to spare Sodom if he finds 10 just people living there. I have always loved this bible story. Now I know that Abraham was quite new to monotheistic worship – you know, one Deity as opposed to the many gods he had previously worshipped. And we, on the other hand, are not. Still, this reading tells us that God was (and still is) approachable. And isn’t that good news?

Bargaining coping Faith family God Humor Listening Patience Prayer

Can We Talk?

When I first learned this year’s hunt would not be taking place up north, but practically in our own backyard – I headed to a quiet place to pray. I tried to erase those thoughts of many years ago; the last time the hunt took place down here; the time when it rained solidly for a week and I would come home to find damp, smelly camo gear spread throughout the downstairs. I tried to blot out those 5:00 o’clock mornings – feet stomping, chairs scraping across the kitchen floor, my husband ‘creeping’ back into the bedroom wielding a flashlight, whispering, ‘Go back to sleep,’ then turning on the overhead light to find what he was looking for. I tried not to think of the peaceful simplicity of that brief respite I enjoyed when the hunt took place up north. Why couldn’t they go up north this year? I pleaded to God in prayer. Your husband is getting older, he said, camping is cold and uncomfortable. Why can’t you be more tolerant?

Wow, that was unexpected. I had come to the Lord for sympathy, clearly he intended this to go a different way. I concluded a change in attitude was in order. My impatience, to which God is constantly drawing my attention, would need to checked at the door each and every morning.

So, rather than try to sleep in, I got up at 5:00 with the hunters – my husband, son, and one other guy. I joined in the morning banter. I joined them at lunch on Monday, when I was home. I was cheery and encouraging. I swept up the mud they tracked in and cleaned up the kitchen – on Monday.

By Thursday, I confess, I was exhausted and when I came home from work to find a kitchen filled with dirty dishes, I was more than a tad annoyed. While I made dinner, I muttered things to God, hoping this time he’d be on my side. He was non-communicative. That in itself sent a message. It stopped me in my tracks.

At dinner, in a calm and quiet voice, I asked if they continued to take a two hour lunch break, as they had on Monday. Both my husband and son nodded their heads, unaware. And no one had time to deal with all those dirty dishes? I was not angry, I was simply doing with them what God had done with me – he made me stop and think, I was trying to do the same for them, and they got it.

Communication with God and each other is vitally important in keeping peace. Both cases require us to pay attention and listen – to the words, but also to the silence. And at all times – pray.

Margery Frisch

Bargaining coping Patience Prayer Trust

Let Go…

We’ve all heard that sage piece of advise…we’ve probably used it ourselves, to help someone working through difficult times. But what does it really mean to us? Often, when I’m fretting about something, I tell myself to ‘let go and let God.’ But do I really do that? Do you?

It occurred to me recently, that I’m very selective about what I turn over to God. ‘It’s ok,’ I might as well be saying, ‘I’ve got it now, I can take it from here.’ Really? When I’ve got my head on straight, I realize that God does not do things in half measures, but you know what? He’s not going to argue about it. ‘You’ve got it? Fine, go for it,’ is how I imagine him replying (probably with the tiniest smirk). We’re like children, aren’t we, thinking we can do everything ourselves. Picture a child carrying something far too heavy for their size and stature. They’re stubborn though, insisting they’re big enough to carry their load…until the overwhelming weight of the thing stops them dead in their tracks, forcing them to admit defeat. That’s us! And it’s laughable, the way we think we can do everything for ourselves. But, just as we are, or were, with our own children, God is patient with us. Waiting for us to turn our minds and hearts back to him. He’s there, always, to pick up the pieces and set us straight, once again.

So why fret? Why struggle? Why can’t we just let go…and let God direct the course of events with which we’ve been wrestling? It goes along the same lines as the way we pray. We pray for this and we pray for that, very specifically, instead of praying for the strength and courage to accept and follow God’s will.

“Act as if everything depended on you; trust as if everything depended on God,” said Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Wouldn’t it just be so easy, uncomplicated and freeing to let God pilot our course? I say this as if it’s the way I live my life. Oh if that were true. I will reiterate…I’m selective about what I let God pilot, and even then, I want to be co-pilot! This is why prayer is essential to our wellbeing. It centers us, puts us back on the right track with our Lord and helps us to see the bigger picture. So, let’s think twice before we go to sit in that driver’s seat (so to speak) and defer to the one who truly is in control at all times. We just might enjoy the ride.

Bargaining Catholic God Humor Prayer Trust

Pushing the Limit

Driving along the highway in my little yellow bug, I find I’m always pushing the limit – the speed limit, that is. If it’s 50 km/h, I bump it up to 60. If it’s 60 km/h, I take it to 70. 80, to me, means keep it under 100. Driving along recently, in my meditative state, I thought about how we push the limit in so many ways. The quick check-out at the grocery store – ‘no more than 12 items’ – we sneak through with 15…or more. ‘No trespassing!’ ‘Do not walk on the grass!’ If we’re not actually breaking, we’re at least bending the rules more often than not. Even in the ways we pray and talk to God – we push.

“Well, no,” says God, “for the sake of the fifty, I would not destroy the city.” Abraham wears God down with his haggling and God, walking away (and throwing up his hands, no doubt) agrees to spare Sodom if he finds 10 just people living there. I have always loved this bible reading. Now I know that Abraham was quite new to monotheistic worship – you know, one Deity as opposed to the many gods he had previously worshipped. And we, on the other hand, are not. Still, this reading tells us that God was (and still is) approachable. And isn’t that good news?