The other night while going back home on the subway, I came across a woman preaching about God. Of course, this is not something unusual in new york city, but what struck me was the determination with which she was saying the following-

"If there is something or someone you really want in this world, just pray to God with all your faith, and you'll get it!"

Though I normally just ignore such "on the go" and "forced to hear" preachings, for some reason I paused my i-pod that I was listening to and started to listen to what she was saying. All though there was a lot of other stuff she had to say about God, somehow the above line just stood out to me. I repeated that line in my head and thought...."well if only that could be true...life could be so much better." And no obviously, my mind didn't stop there...I was tempted to ask that lady two questions-

1. How much should you want that something/someone?
2. How much faith would it take to get that something/someone?

Well, I did not ask her the above questions....I didn't want to mock her belief...maybe it was this belief that was helping her to make it through whatever it was that she was battling in life. But it sure made me think...what if she never gets what she really wants? What if her faith isn't enough to give her what she wants? Is God going to sidetrack her and fulfill some other person's wish?

Some people would argue that hope is very important, it keeps you going. And faith is what gives you hope. But what if you do not have either one? And even if you have both, is there some way you could measure that faith that would help you to know how long it would take you to finally get that something and someone that you have always wished for? Apparently not...we all choose to close our eyes, cross our fingers, hope and have faith that everything would be just right.

Sometimes however, I think faith and hope can't help you either, that something and someone just seems like a distant reality. Maybe it was the same for this woman, but she still decided to go out and preach what may never come true for her.

Now that takes a lot of faith....doesn't it? Amen.