"We are all on the same journey".... or are we?

driving through Franklin County to a small country church and finding the door open "in case someone needs to get in," almond pound cake, thank you cards, hugs, Bobby asking, "Why do people keep coming back here?" all the while meaning, "Why do WE keep coming back here?" Camp Bethel, church picnics, peanut butter cupcakes, macaroni salad, watermelon, old friends, tandem prayer shawl making

Seek and you shall find, ask and you will be given, knock and the door will be opened: it is so easy to say these words and teach that if only we believe - if only we have enough faith - if we only pray, then what we seek and ask for, we will be given. That can be a little like the "secret" - just believe and visualize something enough and it will be manifested. I don't think it is that simple. For me, it is not the belief, the faith or the prayer life that is in question, but that thing we are seeking and asking for. I don't doubt that all things are possible with God. What I doubt is whether my desires are God's desires, whether my self-imposed needs are what God sees as my needs, whether that which I seek and ask for is God's will.

I think that the church fails in this teaching at times. Movies that show good, honest, church-going people suffering, needing who come to a realization that they need God's help, then show these same people healed from their suffering and their needs provided....they do not teach what faith, what being a disciple is all about. They do not teach that those who serve God will indeed suffer, will indeed have needs. They show a life of priviledge one can have just by being "christian." What a farce.