I was watching a really silly movie, Evan the Almighty with Steve Carrell,  with my teenage daughter the other night and got a little insight into life.  You just never know where you'll get a sage piece of advise these days! Listen, it was either Evan or SuperBad so I think I was lucky.

In the movie, God asks Evan to build an ark.  His wife is losing it because she understandably thinks he has wigged out!  God, in the form of a waiter at the restaurant where she is eating with her sons, reminds her that she prayed for a closer family.  He suggests to her that perhaps when we pray to God, we don't necessarily get the exact thing we asked for but instead we receive the opportunity to cultivate on our own ( a much more powerful option than just being handed something) what we asked for. 

Example:  The wife prayed for a close knit family.  Her husband had been building the ark with their sons but she up and left figuring he was wacko.  Perhaps the opportunity to build a close family was in the building of the ark together...the opportunity presented itself for just what she wanted.

So I'm thinking that isn't that what life does all the time?  It hands us 'stuff' to deal with. We can look at that 'stuff' as either an opportunity or an obstacle.  We get divorced and we pray that we have the strength to withstand the heartache and to move forward in life.  Our divorce gives us the opportunity to develop the strength we will need to create a new life...it demands that of us. We might never have been able to develop a strong will and character had we not been faced with a circumstance that challenged us to create strength in our life.  Right?

Its a great concept.  Life happens.  Chaos often reigns down upon us.  Things don't always go according to plans.  Obstacles and challenges present themselves to us during the course of our lifetime again and again.  It is how you choose to see these occurences that makes the world of difference.  You can view them as opportunities to to handle so that you grow and evolve or you can see them as some sort of cosmic punishment.

It is the same with praying to a higher power. Perhaps God dies indeed give us what we need to become who we are meant to be.