Leaving Insurmountable Problems to the Lord

-



http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/
 “If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.”
― Meister Eckhart

While we need to thank the Almighty God for everything he grants without asking as often as we can, every now and then we run into problems in life for which there seems to be no easy solution even though we may do all the right things to overcome them. The problems could be huge ones as those in Syria now or little ones that are less serious but nevertheless serve to disrupt our peace of mind.

At such moments, those who believe in the Lord can do something. They can pray to God and tell Him about the problem, request his help, leaving it to Him to do what is best. He surely shall. It may not be the same solution that we had wished for but it would be the right thing, best for all concerned. One must have faith in that solution and abide by it and it shall lead to peace with the grace of the Lord. One does not have to deal with everything oneself. One has a loving Father up there, and one can always run to Him for help just as a child does to a loving father or mother on earth.

At the end of it all, it is important to remember that because our current life is temporary, all problems we encounter in life are temporary too as are the pleasures we enjoy. When we leave this life, all of it would come to an end. All we shall carry with us is our souls, the record of our deeds, our habits and knowledge that we gained in this episode of life; that is something in our hands for us to improve and increase while we are around. That is what shall make this life a precious gift for us, for as the saint Kabir said in a Hindi couplet,

Hindi

Raat Gavaii soy ke, Diwas gawayo khaye
Hira Janam anmol tha, kodi badle jay

Translation:

The night went in sleeping, the day in pursuit of pleasures and eating
It was a priceless diamond this life, but it is turning into a pebble of little value

Hindi:

Yeh  Ausar chetyo nahi, pasu jyon pali deh
Ram naam jaanyo nahi, ant pade mukh Kheh

Translation:

You did not appreciate this opportunity, regarding your body similar to animals
You did not get to know the Lord, and finally ended up with your face in mud

UPDATE NEXT MORNING:

I wrote this post after a prayer for a nuisance that had arisen in my neighborhood. A similar nuisance had arisen in the past and I had fretted over it for days and not prayed. This time I did and by morning the problem had disappeared. It required me to make a little effort too, that the Lord guided me in my heart to do and I did that as well.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From Birds to Telepathy

-
Image
  Sparrow by  Laitche T he house that I live in presently was built in stages  beginning in 1991 during  vacations and sabbaticals in my career. By 1995, the ground floor of the house was more or less complete except for some finishing that continued later. In the center of the roof of the living room was a hole meant for a center light. To hide the protruding wires a small round plastic sheet covered it with another circular hole in the center of it for the light. A similar one existed in the front porch of the house. I lived in the house through most of 1995 with frequent visits of three or four days to Delhi. At this time a pair of house sparrows occupied the porch roof cavity and made it their home. There were no complaints about that since it was not intended to fix a light there in a hurry. Sparrows are cute little birds anyway and I often leave seeds out for them in the garden. Sometime later the female of the pair moved into the living roo...
Read more

The Palash Tree - Magic of Medicinal Herbs and Flowers and Back Pain

-
Image
The Palash Tree Flower B efore modern medicines became prevalent, humans treated many ailments with flowers, leaves, roots and barks of plants and trees. Ayurveda,  an ancient Indian medicinal science, makes use of many herbs and plant materials without substantial extraction of active ingredients as modern medicine does. The idea is that additional compounds in a medicinal or edible plant is an organic whole and a part of life that supports other life.  The complimentary compounds appear to play a useful balancing role whereas individually extracted and isolated compounds can be harmful. A modern example in wide use as food is sugar, a pure chemical isolated from the juice of sugar cane. Indeed there is no food or herb that does not contain a compound or two that could be from mildly to extremely dangerous if isolated and consumed but is beneficial as a group with other compounds. That is the reason why alcohol distilled from a natural fermented fruit juice and ...
Read more

You are what you eat, and drink

-
Image
C onsume an ounce of whiskey and you will notice the change in mood and behavior immediately. However, it is not just whiskey everything we drink, even the quality of water, or anything we eat has some subtle or significant influence on our behavior. Consumed over a period, not just the weekend binge, the type of food we consume literally shapes our personality prompting ancient thinkers like Hippocrates to remark, “You are what you eat”. Some question this by saying that it is our experiences and habits that shape our personality but the two are linked because it is our habits that shape our tastes and food choices. In another post in this blog it was  mentioned that a human personality is shaped by memory and experiences and one might ask which of the two is more significant - food or experiences?. My understanding is that humans gravitate towards the foods and actions that agree with their inner inclinations and personality and so in the end both causes are two sides of th...
Read more