Be careful what you wish for…
When I was younger it came to me from my experience in the Sweat Lodge, that, as Barrett used to say, God always answers prayer, but sometimes the answer is ‘No’.
I had found that jogging (slow, steady running) seemed to really clear my head when nothing else worked. During my runs I found myself praying. This evolved into a sequence that began with wishes for long life, good health, peace, joy, wisdom, and a few other things along those lines.
I asked these things for, beginning with my family, (who I named individually), my teachers past and present and their families, friends, and so on out to the people that I passed on my run, their families and friends, the people and beings of my community, on outward to my part of town, my town, city, county, part of Florida, the whole state, the South Eastern United States, the whole country, continent, hemisphere, on out to the whole planet, solar system, part of our galaxy, the whole galaxy, the local galactic cluster of galaxies, on out to infinity.
From the smallest sub atomic particles out to the largest aggregates, from the fastest to the slowest, through a litany of all that I could conceive, I would pray that all would help each other and interact for the benefit of all.
This took about 40 minutes, and was my regular practice for a long time.
The Theosophists say “As Above, So Below”, and as I prayed for the external world, I was also asking for these things for all the parts inside myself.
Sometimes God works in mysterious ways. As I look back, I see results that truly answered my prayers, but not in the way I expected.
During a medical checkup my physician found some elevated liver enzymes, and further study found a medical issue, (Hepatitis C), requiring, in those days, a combination of chemotherapy and a virus killer. The disease had been caught early, between stage one and two, (microscopic, reversible damage, assuming the treatment worked), and the treatment was successful.
I had no symptoms of the illness, but the six months of treatment nearly killed me. I lost 50 pounds, the recovery was slow, and my stomach was never the same. Since then I have been forced to eat a much healthier diet, which has probably added 20 years to my life.
God had answered my prayers.
The Sufi’s say “Don’t count your money, your losses and gains, until the end of the market day.”
Perhaps we sometimes get exactly what we need, on grander stages as well. We might be able to apply this larger view in such arenas as world health, global or national politics, and so on, even if it doesn’t seem pertinent at the time.
Namaste,
Daniel
