Weather and Prayer

There is a scene in the movie Patton that I have always enjoyed. Patton goes to his unit Chaplain and tells the Chaplain that he needs to write a prayer that the next day, the troops would have good weather. The Chaplain is a bit taken aback and asks if Patton really thinks that it would be favorable to God for him to pray for good weather to kill his fellow men and that perhaps this is not the way to approach the Almighty. Patton replies that he is very comfortable and solid in his relationship with the Almighty, so if the Chaplain writes a good prayer, then they'll have good weather. Evidently, this can work as I had the opportunity to test this past weekend, driving north for the next two Transitionals. The weather reports on Thursday said that there would be rain and snow from San Jose all the way to Redding, where we needed to be on Saturday but that it might clear up a bit Saturday night. I was not looking forward to driving in the snow on Friday, and I guess my weather prayers worked, because we got all the way from San Jose to Red Bluff with no weather effects at all and just a little rain and a very few snow flakes that didn't stick on the last three miles. Saturday and Sunday were beautiful, with clear skies, snow on the mountains and nice, brisk air. I did discover however, that the word nice going with the word brisk is a "beauty in the eye of the beholder" situation. Not all people find brisk nice. :-) I try very hard to appreciate each day and the natural beauty in the world around us. On the drive up, I had joked about how we never know if today is our last day and I always want to make sure that I enjoy something every day, just in case. After all, time is our most precious commodity, since we don't know how much we have and cannot make more than our allotted amount. I also figured that having used up all of my weekend prayer points on such lovely weather, I probably should lay off asking for anything else over the weekend. After all, it is never good to press one's luck. Unfortunately, I had a chance to see how true my Friday words were on Saturday and I did have to offer up another prayer or two over the weekend because I got the most terrible news that one of my Dragon Riders had passed away. It was very sudden and quite unexpected. She was going through the line for the first time and was very, very excited about it and to lose her like this was incredibly sad. I try to remind myself that my sorrow at her loss is for myself missing her and going on without her, because she is doing fine on the other side of eternity. But any time someone we know passes away suddenly, it reminds us once more to be appreciative of the time we have. Another movie bit that I appreciate says that we are not given the opportunity to choose the times in which we live or the amount of that time. It is only given to us to decide what to do with the time we have. I choose to believe that I am doing the right things with my time here. Next weekend, I will be in Roseville, Auburn, Marysville and Clearlake.