God's got a great sense of humor. He has to! Through His humor I learned to be careful how I pray!
"Give me a congenial roommate, Lord," I prayed on the last lap of my journey before boarding my Alaska-bound ship. "Lead me to someone who needs me, someone whom I can help," I finished, unaware that I didn't really mean what I said.
As the bus stopped to pick up passengers in Seattle, WA, I quickly spread my personal belongings all over the empty seat beside me when I saw an elderly woman who had difficulty walking board the bus. "How can she even think of taking a voyage?" I asked myself in disgust. Little did I dream she was the answer to my prayer! What was my dismay, upon embarking the ship, to learn she was to be my roommate!
Yep! The answer to my insincere prayer was a 75-year-old roommate who could hear out of one ear only. A roommate who had been burned out of her home, losing all her worldly possessions. A roommate who loved to complain nonstop (both day and night -- literally) about herself, her hardships in life, and her children. A roommate who couldn't find her way around shipboard. A roommate who refused to read printed instructions. A roommate who had extreme difficulty taking stairs yet refused to take the elevator. A roommate who had to be careful not to fall as she had broken fourteen bones in the past.
I did my best to be patient, to show her kindness and to help her when I could. I'm not sure I passed the Lord's test with flying colors, although I hope so. But I sure did an inordinate amount of a different kind of praying throughout the voyage! And I learned the hard way to be careful in the future how I pray!
Believe it or not, twenty-five years later I can still hear the Lord chuckling!
Preacher's Kid
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