| It has been said that God answers every prayer; it's just that sometimes, the answer is "no."
 This is not very satisfying for most of us, myself included. I don't like to be told I can't have something, particularly when what I want seems so right - the healing of an ill friend, or the reconciliation of a broken relationship.
Of course, we also pray for peace among nations, and for an end to hunger and poverty. Not to mention a winning lottery ticket. Looking around the world today, it would seem that the answer to these prayers is consistently "no."
In today's first reading, the prophet Habbakuk asks God why his prayers go unanswered. "How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin? Why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord."
"Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily," God tells Habakkuk. "For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. The rash one has no integrity; but the just one, because of his faith, shall live."
I guess God doesn't exactly say "no" to Habakkuk. Instead God says, "Wait." To me, these are the same answers. For just as I don't like to be told "no," I certainly don't like to be told to "wait."
Yet that is what God tells Habakkuk. Wait - the vision will make itself clear.
Waiting means believing that God does hear our prayers and is responding to them, perhaps not on the timeline or schedule of our choosing.
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When one of my sons was struggling with school, I thought I could will him to improve. I instituted mandatory homework time. I hovered over him while he studied. I made sure every assignment was complete. He continued to struggle with tests and quizzes.
It finally dawned on me that the pressure I added to his life was only making him more nervous and anxious. I didn't want to wait for a solution to emerge. I wanted it solved now. I acted rashly. 
Waiting, in God's message to Habakkuk, means having faith. Waiting means believing that God does hear our prayers and is responding to them, perhaps not on the timeline or schedule of our choosing. It is not easy for us to wait for resolution of our most desperate desires - whether for peace in the land or for peace in our lives. But that is what it means to live by faith.
"Increase our faith," the disciples ask Jesus in today's first reading. Do they mean "increase our capacity to wait"? Or do they mean "increase our ability to solve our own problems with your miraculous power"?
I would guess the latter, for we tend to believe that if we just mustered enough faith the lame would walk and the blind would see. Faith does not mean believing we will get our desired outcome in a situation. Faith means waiting to see what God wills that we would never have imagined.
Bill Peatman writes from Napa.
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