To thank or not to thank?

I found myself 'on the horns of a dilemma' yesterday as I was praying.

Like many of you I have been remembering the people of Japan in my prayers. How can we not be moved by the tragedy that is unfolding in front of our eyes? The world is a broken place with terrible ferocity lurking in its ravaged depths and I am convinced that, as people of faith, we need to learn more about responding with prayer not just with questions when things like this happen.


The questions are, of course, vitally important, it's just that the prayer is at least as important... possibly more so.


What flummoxed me, theologically speaking, was that later in the day I spent some time 'creosoting' the panels of the poustinia. As you can see from the photo I took with a different blog post in mind it was a beautifully sunny day. I painted and prayed ponderingly. I found myself thanking God for the wonderful sun which was drying my paint so well... but then found myself wondering if it was right to thank Him at the same times as I wept over the earthquake and tsunami o the other side of the world.


Questions are important. But so is prayer. 


I guess that's the dilemma which we need to inhabit. Both matter. Both matter to God, and both matter to us.