The Levee
Guest Writer: Steve Petkoff
“He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.’” Luke 12:22-23.
The first six years of my life I spent growing up on the north side of the levee in Helena. We were one of the very few white families in that area. We weren’t poor, but we certainly weren’t wealthy. My father had a job which put us in the class of the white people that lived on the south side of the levee. There were a few other white families on the north side of the levee who were literally dirt poor. By that I mean they didn’t even own shoes and their clothes were tattered and torn. Some kids I played with were very dirty, and you could see dirt smeared on their faces you had seen there the day before. We also played with black kids, who were the majority of the residents on the north side of the levee. They were so poor they could not even afford an outhouse toilet.
By my seventh birthday, my father had saved enough money that we could buy a house and move to the south side of the levee. I attended the Catholic school and met new friends, more like me and forgot all about the poor black and white kids of my early years of growing up. I learned about praying and asking God for all the things I wanted.
Looking back, it seems like God always gave me what I wanted by answering my prayers. But as I grow older and look back, I know that’s not true. I had been told that God always answers your prayers.
With today’s political environment and the pandemic, I pray for things completely opposite of what so many of my friends are praying for. I wonder what kind of pressure we are putting on God. My friends are good Christians and we share the same loving God. How can he answer our opposite wishes and grant both of us the same things we are praying for?
We both speak of social justice and socialism. Somehow the terms get misconstrued and confused. We both want what is best for our country and for its citizens. We pray for these things, but it seems like our prayers follow different roads, like on the different sides on the levee.
How then does God answer our prayers that are completely opposite of the same thing others are praying for? The simple answer is because he is God. He gives us the ability to live with whatever the outcome of the situation may be. God’s love allows us to continue by moving our lives forward despite any previous obstacles.
I’m not saying that we have to be complacent and be ready to accept something that we truly and honestly believe is not correct.
I am saying that we have to be ready to open our mind and our heart.
We must search the past life of our souls and keep praying.
Maybe this will require looking back on which side of the levee we grew up on.
Steve Petkoff