A BEGGAR'S PLEA, Part Two

When does God respond to a prayer request?

• a. Forever, because it has to be repeated over and over, and over again.
• b. Never, because I don't pray. I provide for me or rely on seen entities.
• c. After I share my woes to friends who believe and pray for me.
• d. Before it's uttered it to anyone, God responds.

This was my beggar's plea, "Please, redeem this day." This prayer I whispered the morning after the cancelled date with Tia. And God responded 10 p.m. with a phone call from Tia.

"I'm sorry Cindy," her voice soft, sincere, "I didn't have your phone number so I let my son handle the message. He doesn't always relay things clearly. Someone couldn't work so I had to substitute... I forgot it was today..."

Grace slipped through her words to clarify matters and calm me. We rescheduled our date for the next day. I headed down to her house, petted their new poodle puppy. Then we switched cars so Tia could be the driver. I met directors and caseworkers, verbally pressing my case for the best dishwasher not yet employed, my special son, my Buddy. Handsome Buddy came along, also, his leather bound resumé and recommendations in hand.

With Tia's prodding we waded the path through public services. Along the way we pathfinders chatted and smiled politely as we listened to directors and caseworkers. Tia witnessed me wedged between the bureaucratic rock and hard place, how A instructed me to proceed with Bud's plan at the agency B, when B told me instead, "No, you have to wait for another case manager to be assigned and then have A contact us." Sigh!

I pressed my need to know the way to go, and with Tia's help we got all sides on the same page. We kept my original documents in hand, just in case the copied papers got lost in the cracks between ever multiplying public servants. But lest I digress into frivolous taxation for the frivolous... our date was a success in insight. We finished date at Buddy's favorite, freckled faced eatery, so he could order a "Number 6."

The answer to my beggar's plea came with a single Whopper and salad, plus a new friend to be my Connection buzz in the land of red clay and crepe myrtle.

The correct answer to the question, "When does God reply to a prayer request?" is certainly D, in Due time, Before we even ask. Before my tears could well again, before I collapsed into bed, the phone music rang. That 10 p.m. call from my new pal was the start of a better day, a redeemed day, a good, ten hours before my 8 a.m. prayer. I was too tired to see the evening dawn a new day.

Ten days later, this day's beggar's pleas continue as another day dawns, joyful in Jesus.