continued from Prayer lights my way – Prayer I
A perfect testament on how prayer is sometimes not answered in the way we long for comes from Marcus Grodi, a former pastor and convert to Catholicism, in Surprised by Truth, a book by Patrick Madrid. Grodi writes,
“Sitting quietly in the middle of a dew-covered field waiting for the sun to come up, I read Scripture and meditated on these questions that had been troubling me, placing my worries before the Lord. The Bible warned me not to ‘lean unto my own understanding,’ so I determined to trust in God to guide me.”
He was contemplating three options, leaving the pastorate, taking a position he had been offered as head of a youth ministry, or leave ministry all together and go back to engineering. He mulled over these options asking God to guide his steps. He wanted some tangible sign, something that informed him of God’s direction for him in his life. The quiet moment ended abruptly as a bird flew by and pooped on his head. He was disgusted, closed his Bible and left for home. Was this a divine sign or nature’s way of saying there would be no response from heaven.
Later that day when he told his wife what had transpired she laughed and stated in wisdom “The meaning is clear, Marcus. God is saying, ‘None of the above!'”
He would have preferred a less humiliating sign but realized nothing occurs by accident. Grodi concluded, “I took this as at least a comical hint from God to remain at the ministry.” The situation had been quelled but not solved. The questions that he grappled with eventually led him to discover the Catholic Church and find Jesus at the Eucharist.
“In the designs of Providence there are no mere coincidences,” said Pope John Paul II in 1982 on the first anniversary of the assassination attempt that came within millimeters of ending his life.