taken out a loan on my insurance policies. Now everything was gone. I couldn't take it
any longer. So I climbed into my car and started for the river-determined to end the sorry
mess.
"I drove a few miles out in the country, pulled off the road, and got out and sat on the
ground and wept like a child. Then I really started to think-instead of going around in
frightening circles of worry, I tried to think constructively. How bad was my situation?
Couldn't it be worse? Was it really hopeless? What could I do to make it better?
"I decided then and there to take the whole problem to the Lord and ask Him to handle
it. I prayed. I prayed hard. I prayed as though my very life depended on it-which, in fact,
it did. Then a strange thing happened. As soon as I turned all my problems over to a
power greater than myself, I immediately felt a peace of mind that I hadn't known in
months. I must have sat there for half an hour, weeping and praying. Then I went home
and slept like a child.
"The next morning, I arose with confidence. I no longer had anything to fear, for I was
depending on God for guidance. That morning I walked into a local department store
with my head high; and I spoke with confidence as I applied for a job as salesman in the
electrical-appliance department. I knew I would get a job. And I did. I made good at it
until the whole appliance business collapsed due to the war. Then I began selling life
insurance-still under the management of my Great Guide. That was only five years ago.
Now, all my bills are paid; I have a fine family of three bright children; own my own
home; have a new car, and own twenty-five thousand dollars in life insurance.
"As I look back, I am glad now that I lost everything and became so depressed that I
started for the river-because that tragedy taught me to rely on God; and I now have a
peace and confidence that I never dreamed were possible."
Why does religious faith bring us such peace and calm and fortitude? I'll let William
James answer that. He says: "The turbulent billows of the fretful surface leave the deep
parts of the ocean undisturbed; and to him who has a hold on vaster and more
permanent realities, the hourly vicissitudes of his personal destiny seem relatively
insignificant things. The really religious person is accordingly unshakable and full of
equanimity, and calmly ready for any duty that the day may bring forth."
If we are worried and anxious-why not try God? Why not, as Immanuel Kant said:
"accept a belief in God because we need such a belief"? Why not link ourselves now
"with the inexhaustible motive power that spins the universe"?
Even if you are not a religious person by nature or training- even if you are an out-and-
out sceptic-prayer can help you much more than you believe, for it is a practical thing.
What do I mean, practical? I mean that prayer fulfills these three very basic
psychological needs which all people share, whether they believe in God or not:
- Prayer helps us to put into words exactly what is troubling us. We saw in Chapter 4
that it is almost impossible to deal with a problem while it remains vague and nebulous.
Praying, in a way, is very much like writing our problem down on paper. If we ask help
for a problem-even from God-we must put it into words. - Prayer gives us a sense of sharing our burdens, of not being alone. Few of us are so
strong that we can bear our heaviest burdens, our most agonising troubles, all by
ourselves. Sometimes our worries are of so intimate a nature that we cannot discuss
them even with our closest relatives or friends. Then prayer is the answer. Any
psychiatrist will tell us that when we are pent-up and tense, and in an agony of spirit, it is