The Prayer Of Mathematics

Dear Lord,


“I pray that you subtract from my life, people who don’t mean me well, and who will prevent me from being who You and I want me to be. I also pray that you add to my life, people who will help me to be whom You and I want me to be.”

I can’t take credit for this prayer; I remembered hearing my mother’s pastor say it, and it stuck with me. I named it The Prayer of Mathematics for obvious reasons.
There’s a popular saying about people being in your life for a reason or for a season, and I’m inclined to believe that. I have had long-distance friendships that have lasted for decades and some local friendships that have only lasted a year or less. I used to wonder what happened to those people with whom I lost contact, and I’d be disappointed. These weren’t fair-weather friendships; some of those people have had my back when I really needed them and vice versa, so it’s not as if we had even had a disagreement of any kind. They would just dwindle off, and I would always wonder why.
When I started praying that prayer, I had found that even when I try to maintain friendships by initiating an email or text or phone call, there are some that suddenly stop corresponding. I used to wonder why I have to do all the communicating, but I had to remind myself that God is doing what I had prayed for him to do; He’s removing those hindrances. Only thing is, I don't always know that they're hindrances. Every now and then, I still wonder what happened to certain people, but that prayer washes away every bit of frustration I have. I remember 3 yrs ago, I was trying to get back in my chosen career field after a 4 year absence. I was disappointed because about a dozen recruiters were saying they were helping me. In rare instances when I did get an interview they always centered around the question "What have you been doing the past 4 years ?" It was as if I had been sitting home, doing nothing. When I had almost given up, I went to my mom’s church and heard her pastor recite that prayer. A new recruiter called me shortly afterwards and said he saw my resume on Monster.com, and he found me an ideal position in my field! The recruiter asked the question "What have you been doing the past 4 years ?" and he informed potential employers, and I was never asked that question again.
What is it that I want to be? I want to be happy. I have a great job where I have been almost 2 yrs. I want to be in the company of people who will inspire me to be a better Christian, a better human being, and even better employee, a better man, a better writer, a published writer, a better cook, someone who will instill the confidence I need to approach the people I want to get to know. And so now, when I call or text or email people and they don't follow up with me, I don’t even worry about it anymore if they don’t. If they don’t, then that’s God’s way of purging them from my life.

This is a repost