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Is It God’s Will That I Be Homeless?

Jimmy Akin

Jimmy Akin explains to a homeless caller why she should continue praying for a better living situation even if those prayers have not been immediately answered, and offers further advice about what charitable organizations to reach out to for additional help.

Transcript:

Host: Helen—I’m sorry to keep you waiting, Helen in Pennsylvania, listening on 1420 AM, you are on with Jimmy Akin.

Caller: One of the questions—my son and I have really hit tough times, I mean really bad, hard times where at one point we were homeless, living in our car. And people say one thing: “Well, you know, you pray,” and I say, “Well that’s what I’ve been doing, I spend, like, two hours in church every day,” they go, “Oh, well then it’s not the will of God.” Well, what’s the sense of praying if God’s will is that I’m out on the street, freezing cold, and I’m 68 years old and my son doesn’t have money to go to school? I mean, I’m asking God for help, and there is none coming because it’s not His will, well, like my son says, “Mom, stop praying, and whatever His will will be, will be.” Heck, I—I mean, I don’t know what the answer is.

Jimmy: So are you in this situation currently?

Caller: Yes.

Jimmy: Okay. Um, well, first of all, I want to express compassion for you and for everybody in situations like this, because it can be very trying. I’ve been in similar situations in my life. When my wife passed away, you know, all of a sudden, just overnight, there was $40,000 in medical bills and I was a starving grad student and had no money to pay; and so I, you know, I can remember times in my life where—even before my wife passed away—where the two of us were going through the cushions of our couch, trying to find enough money to go get food to eat.

So I have a definite understanding for people in your situation, and…there are resources that should be available to you. Now, I don’t know, in your area specifically, what those are. What I would do is contact your local parish—you mentioned going to church to pray—I would contact the local parish; they frequently have food pantries, they also can get you connected with local assistance organizations. Catholic Charities is an organization that should have an office in your local area. There are other ones as well; sometimes there are interfaith shelters, to provide people a shelter at night so that they won’t have to be out in the cold. And all of those are things—I know we have them here in San Diego, I know they have them in other places, and I’m sure that there are resources in your area that can provide assistance to you and your son.

In terms of your question about prayer: well, there’s no way of establishing what God’s will is up front until you try praying. However, simply because what you’re praying for doesn’t automatically materialize doesn’t mean that it’s not God’s will, and sometimes people are too quick to conclude that something is not God’s will simply because it hasn’t happened quickly. In fact, in the Gospels, Jesus tells the parable of the unjust judge specifically, Luke says, to encourage the disciples always to pray and never give up.

And so if the assistance that you’re looking for is something that isn’t immediately forthcoming, then I would say keep praying, because we have a pretty good idea that God wants people to have the basics of things that you need in life, like food and shelter and things like that. And He may tolerate situations where people don’t have those, especially on a temporary basis; but fundamentally, we can pretty much count on God’s will, at least in the vast majority of circumstances, as being in favor of people having those things. And so I would say keep praying about them.

I don’t know that I would say you need to pray for two hours a day in church about them, but in addition to prayer, I would also take action towards those goals, because God didn’t just give you the ability to pray, He also gave you the ability to talk to other people, and to reach out to other people, and to work with other people to try to improve your situation for you and your son. And so I would say talk to the local parish, talk to your local Catholic Charities organization, talk to other charities if you need to; go to classes that could potentially help you find some kind of additional income, maybe a part-time job or even a full-time job. I know you mentioned you’re 68, and so that may or may not be something that is easy to find, but it’s something that at least could be an additional avenue of help for you and your son. Same thing with your son; I’d encourage him to—and I don’t have the details of his situation—but to the extent that he’s able to, say, get a job to help pay for his schooling, that would be a good thing to do as well, and that’s one of the things that the local assistance organizations can help you with.

And so I’d offer those thoughts, and I’ll also be praying for you and encourage our listeners to pray both for you and your son and for everyone in similar situations.

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