Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”

The 140,000 who attended Garth Brooks’ concerts in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA) two years ago represent a dent in the population of the St Paul/Minneapolis area of near 4,000,000. If Garth prayed for it, such attendance was a generous answer.

And possibly he did a reprise of his song “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” The song tells of the singer’s gratitude he did not marry the passion of his younger years. “She wasn't quite the angel that I remembered in my dreams.”; He thanked the Lord for “unanswered prayers.”

Think of some of the strongest aspirations of our teens and twenties. Something or someone, experience tells us, would have been a poor choice. Take barista Jake, for example: a few years ago, he was hoping to get into the FBI.  More recently he plans to do graduate work in Game Design.

Looking back a few decades, we thank God (and others) that an adolescent passion or college-age certainty did not carry the day. In our own experience, whether in love or professional choice, it’s likely we have seen the truth: “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” That we’ve learned through experience or because of the solicitude of friends and mentors who saw some ability in us that would have been unrecognized but for their insight.

How little we truly know ourselves in our teens and 20s. We know we “must” become an accountant even though it’s obvious to others that good as we are with numbers we’re much better with persons. Or we imagine our happy life will be working with ancient Syriac manuscripts till a college administrator asks us to take a position as student chaplain.  In retrospect we see how misdirected our prayers and passions may have been. “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”

Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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