A Prayer of Desperation

Have you ever been in a place of utter helplessness, a place of complete desperation?  Have you ever totally reached the end of yourself? 

My time at grad school was rapidly coming to an end, and I was seeking a permanent, full-time job.  I had written to about a dozen engineering firms about three months earlier but with no positive responses.

Graduation was just a week or two away, and my wife of nine months, Mimi, was to begin grad school the following week.  I was about to become the only provider, but there were no jobs in sight.  Feeling very needy, I poured out my heart to God in prayer one evening for more than an hour.  I prayed in utter helplessness and desperation like never before.

The next morning, I decided to simply show up at the engineering firm in which I was most interested, located about an hour’s drive away in downtown Boston.  As I entered the front door to the office, having arrived uninvited, the receptionist knowingly asked me, “Are you Ken Wilson?”  After recomposing myself, I responded, “Yes.  But how did you know my name?”

“We called you about an hour ago,” she explained, “to ask if you might be interested in a job with us.  Your wife informed us that you were on your way here at that very moment!” 

The next day I interviewed with them, and the following day I had the job!

Regardless of whether answers to prayer come in amazing ways like this or they don’t come as I might hope, I can trust that God, in His infinite love and wisdom and power, is doing what is best – even if my limited brain can’t fully understand it.  I can trust in the God “who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).