The Random Driven Life

 

Day 8

 

Be Careful What You Pray For

 

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

 

James 5:16

 

I had gone to a conference where a speaker had said if we wanted to develop some godly attributes in our life we should pray for them. I was a single college student at the time and a previous girlfriend had told me I was conceited. My initial reaction was to think, "Oh, yeah! And who are you to tell me I'm conceited? I'm too good for the likes of you!" (I guess that explains why she was a previous girlfriend).  After I thought about it for a while I decided she might have something there, so I started praying for humility.

 

I had just started dating a girl who had been a homecoming queen, which was kind of counterproductive to the humility thing. We had a date on Saturday night, but on Friday night my older brother was getting married. We were all getting ready for the wedding on Friday when my older brother, suffering from a case of nerves I guess, somehow managed to accidentally flush the toilet paper spindle down the toilet int the upstairs bathroom. He volunteered to come back on Saturday and fix it, but I told him, "Hey, it's your honeymoon. I'll take care of the toilet." God was at work; humility was on its way.

 

The next morning I got the toilet unbolted from the floor and managed to lug it down the stairs and out into the front yard. The toilet spindle was wooden and had gotten firmly wedged into the U-section of the toilet. I stuck my hand in as for as I could go but part of what I grabbed was not the spindle. A friend stopped by and saw me wrestling the toilet and had a good laugh. Eventually, with the help of a garden hose, I was finally able to dislodge the spindle and fix the toilet.

 

I went on my date with the homecoming queen that night and everything was going well. We were going to get something to eat after a movie, so I purposely took her to a place that our circle of friends seldom went to, but when we arrived many of our friends were there. God was at work; humility was on its way.

 

They were our friends so we had to sit with them. Still, everything seemed fine, we were laughing and joking with our friends when the guy who had seen me that morning said, "Tell them what you had to do this morning." Not being one to pass up a chance to tell a good story, I told them about lugging the toilet downstairs, finding disgusting little surprises in the toilet when I stuck my hand in it and how humiliating it was to see people drive by our house and see me wrestling a toilet. Everyone thought the story was hilarious... everyone except my date, the homecoming queen. Perhaps she was thinking, "I've just been holding a hand that has recently been in a toilet."

 

After that every time I called her for a date she was going to be busy washing her hair that night. I got to thinking about the whole thing. I remembered the people driving by laughing at the toilet wrestler and my new previous girlfriend with the really clean hair and I realized that God had answered my prayer. I prayed for humility and I had been humbled.

 

They say, "Be careful what you pray for. You just might get it." I don't think God is waiting to catch us on a technicality in our prayers so he can mess with us. God is not like that. But I do think that if we ask for something that is truly good for us then we best be ready.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Galatians 5:22-23

 

• How might the Spirit produce patience in us?
• How might the Spirit produce self-control in us?
• Is the pathway to some virtues always easy?