Connect or disconnect?

When you come to an obstacle in the road, what is your first instinct?  Do you sit down, in front of the obstacle and wait for someone to come and remove it for you?  Do you investigate the object to discover the best way to have it removed?  Do you push and push to the point of exhaustion only to discover all of the work was for not, that the obstruction did not move?  Do you turn around and go back from the direction in which you came?  Do you survey the situation, looking for a path around the obstacle?  Do you listen with the heart and react in faith that you walk right over the obstruction?  There are so many options that it is feasible to say that we have reacted with some, all, or even other responses to said obstacles.  Instinctually, when we see something in our way we want it gone immediately; unfortunately, this is not always an option.  What is always an option is a prayer discernment of our situation, an unbiased, faith invested look at the obstacle ahead that the action taken be a response from the heart, not the ego.  A rationalized response from the mind, without input from the heart can lead to destructive solutions; solutions which leave us among overgrown paths without a light source and plenty of thorns.  Decisions solely rendered with the mind leave the body exhausted and the heart perplexed as all the pushing resulted in no displacement of the object; rather a displacement of our excitement, of our trust, and of our expectations.  Exhausted, our vision skewed as each breath a challenge and our mind wrestling with our next move.  Yet, the most problematic of options is the sitting an waiting for someone else to move the obstruction from our path.  First, this may be a self imposed object in which no one can see because it exists only in the mind, a fabrication of the ego, a ploy to keep us from moving in a direction detrimental to the ego.  Second, the sitting and waiting makes our bones stiff, makes us tired to the point where we no longer want to move, we rationalize our position and become content with our progress.  We are not built for contentment, we have an innate need to strive for excellence; excellence defined in terms of the heart, showered with love, invests in hope, and grounded in faith.  Therefore, if we just sit and wait, we are not active in our future and we run the risk of clouded sight; sight in which partial objects are identified by pictures and experiences of the past, discrediting any chance for newness.  Life quickly becomes a series of what could have been verse what should have been.  The only option with a 100% success rate is prayer coupled with actions of faith.   In the stillness we hear, in the stillness we speak, in the stillness the Father responds with love.  We must remember that just because we ask does not mean the answer is always a resounding yes.  As Jimmy Carter once said, "God always answers our prayers but sometimes the answer is no."  Expectations of a yes cannot discount the process of prayer for prayer is but a connection of our heart to that of the Father who knows our heart, knows our strengthens, knows our limitations and speaks from a clarity no human shares.  To pray with an expectation is to react to the obstacle as one who, filled with rage, attacks the object, attempting to move a two ton object without assistance; it is absurd.  Connections of the heart require trust, require patience, require wisdom, require hope for such is the possibility with the Father for He has shown us how to depend upon love which stem from the above virtues.  So the next time an obstacle presents itself in the path of life, remember God is in the mayhem of the moment, He is in the silence of a prayer, He is in the stillness of the breath, and He is in the moment of action.  Without hesitation, take a knee, listen with the heart and react in faith; maybe you will be instructed to climb the obstacle, maybe to forge a new path around it, maybe through it, and maybe, just wait in stillness.  Whatever the answer, the heart will have spoken and the ego silenced by unconditional love.  Trust in the Lord, trust His speech, trust Him without fail; trust in the Lord and your vision will never, again, be skewed by the ego.  Obstacles present themselves on a daily basis, are you prepared to react with faith by responding in prayer?  Can you set aside your ego, ignore the commotion of the mind and focus on the heart, focus of the wordless words of God, tenderly speaking to you?  A prayer connect equals an ego disconnect resulting in a clarity  of the heart and a breath of understanding whereby hope is the focus and trust is the cornerstone.  Life obstacles stand not a chance to prayer, are you ready to pray?