SharonA, You said: "What frightens me about some people who pray is that they hold the sort of "it's-all-for-me" attitude implied by kendall's statement. Our guest, "wvpreacher", makes a similar assumption when he says "God wanted me to be happy so much that God would shake history to make me happy." My problem with that assertion is that history involves other people whose lives would be affected by that shake-up. One person gets a life-saving transplant while another person dies waiting for the organ that went into the first guy. One person eats a banquet while others starve. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. So when a person asks his God to "shake history" to grant him a favor, it frightens me to think that that person has more concern for some people who need that favor than for others in the same predicament." That "it's-all-for-me" is your assumption about what I said. Unfortunately, your assumption is correct for much of North American consumer-based religious shallowness. God did shake history for me. It did have implications which others had to live with. We've all ended up the better for it. And what's even more weird is that I did not pray for it. In fact I was blind-sided by it. God literally intervened to remove me from a life that I had created that only reenforced my lack of self worth. Many people experince this with things like getting fired, being divorced, serious illness, accidents, and ultimately in death. It wasn't easy for me. I did have to face my worst fears. I did have to walk through much pain. I suffered much more than anybody that suffered the implications of God's shaking history for me. Suffering is probably the wrong word. Grieved is better. I finally allowed myself to feel and accept the hurt of all the big HURTS that parents and people can pile on us as well as took responsibility for creating situations in my adult life that reinforced and (even reenacted) every false belief I had allowed myself to be programmed with from all the HURT. Daily I have to live with accepting that responsibility and living in a new awareness of myself and my actions and reactions within a whole new set of relationships. God gave me an empty slate to work with and choices of how to fill it. I chose and still choose to put my negativity behind me as best as I can. I choose to face my fears instead of hide from them. I choose resolving hurts rather than hiding from those who hurt me. I choose communication rather than the violence of silence. I know without a doubt that God is for us not selfishly simply for me. Implied within saying that God is for us is the secondary thought that God is for each of us. Yet, God's being for each of us does not mean that God caters to our whims or that God will bless us if we do such and such or believe this or that. That's when you start getting into religion and religion simply put is human response to God so no wonder humanity speaks of God in human and animal images and concoct after death experiences. Religion is humanity's way of trying to understand and even manipulate the Mystery of God and other things that we cannot know. Science is even a religion. It has its idols, beliefs, and rules. Religion - God says, "Be still and know that I am God." and the next thing you know rather than being still we try to figure out who said that. After deciding it was the tree next to us because it has a knot that looks like a human face, we build temples around trees, employ priests, sacrifice things, disagree, build different temples, then disagree more, develop new techniques and rituals, only to disagree more. It would have been so much easier (and friendlier to sheep, goats, bulls, doves, and not to mention virgins) to have been still and gotten caught up in the renewing wander of God's presence with us. God wants happiness (Shalom, blessedness, etc.) for each of us - for you, for me - and God will shake history to give each of us happiness because it is the way God is for all of us. The secret is to watch and be ready - to actually let ourselves have hope.

Peace,