Let me ask you something.

If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient?

If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous?

If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?


This came from "Evan Almighty", a movie which I watched over the weekend. This was a conversation between God (played by Morgan Freeman) and Joan Baxter at a food joint. After the conversation, she came to realise, that to make her prayers answered, it is down to hER to make it happen. Not for things to happen by itself.

I thought, what am I expecting out of my prayers when I pray? am I like Joan?

Many of us pray for things, things that we want for ourselves, be it virtues, material things, or for situations to turn around during tough times. But we never thought of how God is to answer our prayers. I guess humans, being humans, always think that it will be given, like a freebie from a shop or a dollar coin found along the pavement.

But on hindsight, I realised God is indeed a sovereign God. Whatever happened for the last few months has taught me more humility than I ever could see in myself. And I thanked Him for that.

Towards the last bit of the show, God explains the meaning of ark, when Evan asked Him why was he chosen to build an ark.

God: How do we change the world?
Evan Baxter: One single act of random kindness at a time.
God: [spoken while writing A-R-K on ground with a stick] One Act, of, Random, Kindness.

Yep, an Act of Random Kindness. :)