Re-Membering the Joy of Being the Answer to Another's Prayers

All my adulthood, I’ve had an increasing number of obligations I’ve been tempted to resent. To maintain gratitude, I continually look for mind tricks to help me shift to “what I get to do”, away from "what I have to do" when it comes to blessing others.

Recently during a meditation, it re-occurred to me that whenever I contribute to the life of another I am an answer to prayer. Every day someone prays to receive some portion of their daily bread they aren’t certain they may receive. When we offer any service, we are an answer to that prayer. This is what makes any economy, whether financial, social, or environmental, work, no? Every offering and purchase, in the marketplace, is a contribution to another’s life. For sure there are purchases and service offers that appeal to me and others that do less so. This post and its encouraged re-membering is about the less appealing.

A colleague I’d been complaining to one day about this (resentful) situation, suggested to me that since I’m so blessed to have so much that I can contribute to so many, I might as well learn to choose the “joy”, and less the “chagrin”, of being the answer to so many prayers.

May we all see and relish the joy of being the answer to the prayer of someone who prayed.