Article on hope and prayer
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One of my close friends suffers from a form of mental illness caused by a chemical imbalance. Agnes (not her real name) resides in an assisted living facility and, with the aid of good psychiatric care and effective medication, functions at a high level. In fact, the facility where she resides recently featured her artwork in a show and held a lovely reception in her honor.
Agnes is a person of deep faith who prays regularly. Prayer seems to be her greatest source of strength and consolation. Still, she wrestles with dark times marked by frustration, anxiety and grief. In the past, the deleterious effects of her illness have caused alienation from some of her children, and she often grieves that loss. Sometimes she asks, "Why do I have to suffer from this illness?" "Why is it that my brain does not work right?" "Why did God allow this to happen to me?"
Questions like these are asked by many people who encounter suffering in their lives. Health care providers, especially — but not only — those in pastoral care, often hear them. It is easy to succumb to the temptation to offer an immediate explanation or proverbial response to such questions. ("God has a plan for us." "God never gives us a bigger cross than we can carry." "There is a reason for everything.") People typically make such statements as a way of expressing compassion for others and in an attempt to find meaning in perplexing situations. Sometimes it is easier to fit an experience of suffering into a structure of meaning that involves a questionable image of God than it is simply to stand before the mystery and accompany the suffering person. We do need to speak, but what we say must respect the mystery of God and the mystery of suffering. And what we say to suffering people about God must help them in their own prayer; it must assist them in their talking to God.
please make me as a brainliest..