Prayer

I've got to be honest. I'm feeling a bit discouraged by prayer right now.

You see, the High Park Fire has been torching tens of thousands of acres west of Fort Collins for over two weeks now. And ever since it started, I've been praying fervently for it. Not half-hearted prayers. Bold prayers. Prayers backed in faith that God can answer them. Prayers that God would drench our state. That he'd lower the temps and the wind, raise the humidity, and pour forth rain. I've been praying Scriptures about rain. Reading about Elijah and the cloud the size of a fist that brought forth a crazy amount of rain in a land that hadn't seen it for three years, and envisioning that as I prayed it for my state.

And yet the past week has been marked by record-breaking temperatures. So far in June, the area where the fire is has received .06 inches of rain. Total. Containment on Friday dropped by 15%.

I've been praying for the firefighters for strength. Then I read that one was medavac'ed on Friday due to dehydration. I've been praying for homes to be spared. 57 more homes burned this weekend.

I've been praying that God would prevent more fires from starting. This weekend, new fires began to pop up all over the state.

There've been other fires nearby. The one near Carter Lake last summer. Hewlett Gulch just a month or so ago, just north of where High Park is. And I never really followed those too closely, just whatever I read on Facebook. But somehow this one struck my heart from the very beginning, when I first heard about it and it was just 50 acres. With this fire, I felt compelled to follow it, and to pray.

So it's hard not to feel like my prayers have not only been ineffective, but like God is just doing the opposite of what I ask. It's hard to keep faith when the first fire I pray regularly for turns into the 2nd largest fire in Colorado state history. It's like when you tune into a basketball game halfway through and learn that your team has been winning the whole game, but as soon as you start to watch they start losing. And even though you know that it couldn't have had anything to do with the fact that you were watching, it's hard not to feel like you're a curse.

Only this isn't as frivolous as some basketball game. This is people's homes, even a life. And I know that a LOT of people have been praying. It's hard not to feel like God isn't listening to any of us.

I was just about to log into Blogger to write this blog when I read this Tweet. "RAIN!!!! RT @COEmergency its beginning to rain out off CR74E and Boy Scout Road (68C)"

It's 16 days in, but it's a glimmer of hope. A glimmer that God is listening. That somehow he will work good from this. And that he is in control.