And thoughts about unanswered prayer.
Music: Cat Stevens, “Another Saturday Night” https://thehomelessblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2044/02/12-another-saturday-night.mp3
Script:
It’s The William Tell Show. I call myself William Tell; you can call me Bill. Thank you for including me in your world. It’s wonderful to be included.
Here in Baltimore, we’ve just come through a couple weeks of REAL winter.
In recent weeks there’s been a major change in my housing prospects; so today I’m going to talk about that, and also talk about unanswered prayer.
I’m working with two women to find housing. One is the manager of the rental assistance program, at a non-governmental agency that otherwise has nothing to do with me. The other is my case manager at the shelter.
In mid-November, the lady at the agency told me she’d heard from a landlord, the owner of a place within walking distance of my church, who was going to have a unit available mid-January. It was being remodeled. I told her I was interested, and she relayed that to the landlord.
I was going to accept this place sight unseen. Until now, we had not found anything within walking distance of my church. On the one hand, I will be allowed to continue to stay at this hotel until COVID goes away, but there’s no telling how long that will be. On the other hand, everything is in place now for me to look for a job in radio, and I judge that it will be easier to maintain a job if I have my own place. My strongest motivation to find a place isn’t for the sake of having a place, but to make it easier to be William Tell.
Some months prior, my previous case manager took me to look at several places, but none of them was acceptable to me. As said, I was going to take this place sight unseen.
So I began to pray, every day, that I would simply fall in love with the place just as I found it. Ideally, I’d like a place just like the hotel room I’m in now, with enough added space for a kitchen. I’d like carpet or hardwood floors; I want to have a cat, and I want to have wi-fi, which I may have to get on my own. I’m online, these days, just about 24/7.
So that was my prayer, every day.
Mid-January came, and I had not heard anything more about this apartment. I got a new case manager; she reached out to the landlord, and learned that it’s a two-bedroom unit; whereas I’m only approved for a one-bedroom unit. So, this place will not be available to me.
We’re back to square one, with no housing prospects at all.
If I still have no place when they close down the hotel, I will return to the shelter shelters. I won’t mind the living conditions, but the specific shelter I’m in may or may not accommodate my having a job. The world may wind up listening to The Homeless Blogger on the radio, while he’s actually still homeless.
Let’s take a break.
[Commercial break]
So my prayers about my housing have not been answered — yet.
Ambrose Worrall defined “faith” as, quote, “The absence of resistance to that which you hope to receive.” I define faith basically as integrity — walking your talk — having your feelings, thoughts and actions all congruent with a given goal. Any incongruence, or dissonance, among those three things, will weaken your attraction to your goal.
In the case of my prayers for that apartment, there was resistance that could not be overcome; resistance in the form of fact, that it’s a two-bedroom unit, whereas I’m only approved for one.
Frustrations in prayer make many people skeptical, and I am no exception. For many men, if not most men, the first example is the same as mine: frustration in love. In the eighth grade, I had a crush on this girl named Donna. For all the strength of my desire, and my thinking and my actions, she never did find it in her heart to love me back.
A similar situation occurred again in college.
All I can figure now is that it involves that person’s free will; and nothing can overcome what the person chooses of her or his own free will.
For today’s music, I had to find a song about someone wanting something. I chose “Another Saturday Night.” Here came an exercise in frustration. I wanted the Jim Croce version, but Amazon doesn’t sell that; Amazon doesn’t even sell the album it’s on. So I bought the original Sam Cooke version; but when I tried to download that, Amazon insisted on downloading a different song. I tried several times. So, we wound up with the Cat Stevens version, even though I’m not a Cat Stevens fan.
Things don’t always go the way I want, but I can still count my blessings. You can count your blessings every day!
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