What if My Troubles Help Someone Else? Huh?

Well, my computer troubles continued all last week even after I got the income tax off early on Tuesday morning. But the saga continued. . . . however, I won't trouble you with my sad sob story.

It did come to a happy ending on Friday night when I finally was able to install an older system, and I'm now back in my business routines as of Saturday night at midnight.

But there is another scenario that wove into that saga. A friend who often phones me to ask my to pray for her and her problems, when she realized that I was downhearted about my computer troubles, offered to pray for me. This was a first!

Over the next few days she called to ask if I had solved my problems yet. When she learned over this past weekend that on Friday night I had finally managed to get an older LEAP system to install and that my programs now showed up and worked. Plus on Saturday night I got my 19 emails set up again; I could receive emails again....! Then my friend rejoiced, and I had a lightbulb moment.

She'd had the impression that her prayers were no use. If she had a headache or could not sleep, she was sure that only my prayers would help. Now it dawned on her that she could pray for me and hear that her prayers were answered.

Wow! What if my troubles were meant to teach her to pray?

It gets better! On Saturday evening she called to say that one of the aides who does laundry in the "Assisted Living" place where she lives had an explosion in her stove, and could not really afford a new one. My friend promised to pray for her, and added, "I'll call my friend in Saskatoon; she gets answers to pray ALL the time!"

(She also asked me where this Aide could get a free stove provided... like via a church. I explained that if the Aide owned her home, her insurance should cover that, and if she rented, she should call her landlord... to see if he/she would replace it. Later she reported that the Aide found a second-hand stove for $400 and had just that amount in her bank account).

The key lesson here is that my friend learned the power of prayer and it has done wonders for her own faith.

I don't always announce this to everyone, but I have running prayer-conversations with the Lord all day long. Also, I know that God will answer eventually; in the meantime I must not give up doing all that I know to do, or that I can find out by researching that predicament. I do recall that once this friend began to pray for me, I had a more cheerful waiting attitude and I continued trying every possible action I could or might try.

Our troubles may not come because God has something against us. They may be allowed for us to develop some fix-it skills, or to teach someone else something who is involved on the fringe.

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