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Much wisdom in your comments.

I don't mind rambling--not wanting to be hypocritical!

I would however, note that in many Old Testament stories, God encouraged and even required people who Loved Him to ask of Him great things.

AND to demonstrate profound acts of repentance, forgiveness, contrition, humility etc.

Certainly God doesn't NEED such.

But HE IS THE ONE who has decreed IN HIS PREFERENCES AND WISDOM that WE HAVE by HIS GRACE

the awesome honor of BEING INVOLVED in HIS actions on this planet. THAT OUR PRAYERS DO make a difference in the here and now. THAT OUR HUMILITY, CONTRITION, REPENTANCE ETC. DO MAKE A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE in

how even ALMIGHTY GOD behaves Himself in a given situation.

HE MADE THOSE RULES.

Who am I to argue with HIM!?

There's even the awesome and mysterious Scripture about GOD CHANGING HIS MIND after Moses' intercession. I think it was Moses.

But given that God created us for Fellowship--and that Christ died that we might be HIS JOINT HEIRS--it kinda fits.

Awesome as it is.

MUCH APPRECIATE YOUR ATTITUDE AND TONE IN YOUR MSG. MOST ENCOUARGING AND CARING. You must be a great person to live with.

The story that comes to mind is that of Ninevah, a very wicked city, to which God sent Jonah to call the people to repentence.

Well, we all know the story of THAT refusal on Jonah's part and where it got him.

But the REST of the story, as they say, was that Jonah did go there after his adventure with the whale, and preached repentence, and the whole city repented and put on sackcloth (a sign of mourning).

Ninevah is smack dab in the middle of Iraq, a very wicked place.

Perhaps the "early surrendar" being touted, is a way of avoiding the destruction that would befall Iraq.

Continue to pray for our president, his advisors, our men and women in the armed forces everywhere, the people of Iraq, and even Saddam Hussein, our enemy, as Jesus called us to do.

Miracles still happen.

Thank you for the kind words and the thoughtful post. I was raised an atheist and, strange as this sounds, it seemed to AID in my "spiritual quest", if you will. I simply cannot believe that everything is "random". If it's random, it's the most amazing, beautiful random I've ever seen, which means there's a logic to the very randomness...

One of the best and longest conversations I had about this was with Jack Quinlan, who was ALMOST Governor of MA way back in the Volpe days (he's now retired). I'm 27 and still wet behind the ears (and smarting from having my industry -- tech -- disappear from under my feet), but I have tried my whole life to be open to as much as I can. I grew up in MA (liberal bastion), went to school at UC Berkeley (liberal bastion), everyone wanted me to keep going my existentialist route, but eventually...I stopped. Anyway, the conversation with Jack was truly fascinating. I bring him up only because he's the best example I can think of, that I personally know, of a truly devoutly religious "philosopher" of sorts. He's a strict Catholic, a GREAT guy...this is kinda why I struck up the conversation (my father, a retired political consultant, was in the room at the time and I thought he might faint, since I was touching on one of those things you don't talk about in polite company -- religion and politics), I wanted to see what made him tick. Anyway, he was more than open about discussing his faith, Catholicism in general, current problems in the local diocese (this was pre-scandal time)...it's men (and women) like him, or GW Bush, or yourself, that make me stop, pause, and think. Not even debate; just think.

My mother had a cerebral hemorrhage last August and, had I not had the little faith I've managed to build up in me, I would have lost it. Instead, the faith floated to the surface -- I didn't think God would save her; I didn't think God would take her; I had no thoughts on that -- I just felt comforted by reading the bible, praying, and trusting that there was a design -- His Will be done, and so on. The comment I made about praying for strength came from that -- I prayed for strength. The words were for my mother, but...it felt like a selfish act, like I was doing this just to make myself feel better (short of just reciting the Lord's Prayer). After all, if it HAD been her time, it would have been audacious of me to ask the Almighty to change His plan...and so on. But -- it was much that thought -- who am *I* to question what God does or does not do in this situation? Was I there at the beginning? I think not. :p

On a side note, my mother made a miracle recovery and is almost 100% back to normal. So maybe the prayers did work...I just don't know...maybe it was just the way it was supposed to *be*.

I'm still wrestling with it. I'd pop up on more religious threads on here, but...er...there are a few people out there who give ANY religion a bad name. Afraid of getting bashed by those folks on a subject that is very important to me and that I'm trying to wrestle through (I'll get there, don't worry :p), etc. Mostly I can't stomach it when someone tells me that someone I know who is a good person is going to hell because they picked the wrong flavor of religion, while a death row inmate who accepts Jesus at the second of his death gets in. That, I just can't accept. Mind you, I'm only talking about a small minority of people who bash me about that, but on an issue like this, I need free thought and zero flaming/bashing/etc., so I shy away from the religious threads.

I hope my prayers DO make a difference. I also hope beyond hope that I am living, in some degree, in the way that God wants me to. I really don't know what to do; I've read the Bible several times and I try to merge that with what I intuitively *know* is right and go from there.

Anyway, to sum up, I like it when I'm forced to think about my spirituality, and your posts have done just that, so thank you. :-)

Attitude and tone in the message you don't have to thank me for. I'm actually getting a tad ticked at some of the rudeness that's popping up lately on FR -- especially when threads fracture apart over religion (the original Elizabeth Smart thread did that last night, it was awful, I tried to stand in the middle and post some things I thought might calm people down, but...massive infighting anyway, to the extent that the Admin Mod pulled the thread).

I have no idea if I'm a great person to live with. My roomate, who is one of those jack*sses who's read "a little bit" (you know what I mean, "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing", and so on) is just discovering such choice quotes as "opiate of the masses" and blather like that. Although I'm NOT letting him get away with just tossing those things out these days, I'm making him stop & think (I can seem to do that to him if I take long enough). The most important thing I've learned living with a roommate, though, is that I just have to let stuff go sometimes. He might be ticked some night and rip into me with insults, but I have no idea how his day at work went or what's prompting it, so I will let him vent, stay away, and then try to find out what's wrong with him later.

Thanks again for the kind words and the chance to further wrestle with the Big Questions.

Best,
CWL