Pig Posse

We bought two small hogs back in the fall with the intention of filling them out to put in our freezer this spring. Well, they got out sometime last night and we have yet to find them. We rode the woods, walked the woods, watched and listened, but had no luck. I even prayed that God would give me special piggy ears and piggy eyes so that I would be able to easily recognize them if I saw them. Still no luck.

So what do you do when you try something and then ask God for help and he doesn’t show up? I know that in this instance, it seems a little silly, but for us, the pigs represent a large amount of money that we will save on grocery costs in the near future. But in other real life instances, when we really need to find something or we need for it to work out, sometimes it seems like God totally disregards our request. Have you ever been there? Have you ever asked him for something and he seemed to blow you off, leave you hanging, or you get his answering machine?

It’s not a fun feeling and sometimes it’s disheartening. Instead of remaining faithful and continuing to trust that God has our best interests at heart, we let these instances define our relationship with God. We deem him “untrustworthy” or “uncaring” because he failed to come through when we specifically asked him to show up.

I don’t know why we seem to get his answering machine sometimes. I don’t really have a definitive answer as to why he doesn’t always respond to prayers like the one I threw up to him today. But what I do know is that he has done way too much in my life to base our entire relationship on this one instance. His love, his grace, his compassion, his peace-these have all been apparent way too often in my life to let one “answering machine” request ruin what we have.

Will our pig posse reappear? Who knows! We will keep looking and I will keep asking him for piggy eyes and piggy ears until we find them or I’m sure they are gone. Either way I have to trust that God does hear me, he does love me, and even though I didn’t get an immediate answer from him, our relationship is still solid.