My pastor was quoted in the LSJ this weekend and I liked what he said (because it was so profound, of course):

"Both Silvey and Noel Heikkinen, one of the pastors at Riverview Church in Holt, recall the words of Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians: "Pray without ceasing." Heikkinen, 33, meets regularly to pray with the other pastors at Riverview. He guides his four children in prayer. And he talks with God throughout each day, using plain conversational language.

"God is listening," he said. "It's not like when we say, 'Dear Jesus,' he automatically answers the phone and when we say, 'Amen,' he hangs up. It's a constant dialogue."

What are you really asking for? "Sometimes when you ask God for something, the answer is no," said Noel Heikkinen, one of the pastors at Riverview Church in Holt. "In consumer Americanism we want an instantaneous yes, and we want it now, and we want an explanation now. And it is entirely possible that we will live this entire life not knowing why God said no."

He tells people sometimes an unanswered prayer is just a part of the bigger picture. He asks people to imagine that God is weaving something on a loom. "The top is God's perspective, the bottom is ours. Everything we see is a mess. We stick our needle up to God and he takes those randomly stuck up needles and he is weaving them together in this incredible pattern."

I don't like it when God says no. Of course, when I rebel against his "no" I find myself in a world of hurt. I'm trying to turn that around. Selfishness sucks.