Is Garth Brooks right about God and unanswered prayers?

(Editor’s note: The Criterion has invited you, our readers, to share a song that has led you into a deeper level of faith, humanity or love. Here are two of the songs that have been shared so far.)

One in an occasional series
 

By John Shaughnessy

You may remember a time in your life when you made a long-distance drive late at night by yourself. To stay awake or pass the boredom, you desperately scanned the radio for a song to help keep you going, and just then you heard a set of lyrics that made you stop and listen.

Ken Ogorek lived that experience about 35 years ago as he was driving from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis. And there was something about that song by country singer Garth Brooks that has stayed with him ever since.

“I was in the middle of nowhere, where you’re not going to get a lot of AM reception, so I’m just turning through the channels, and I just happened on this station in the middle of this song,” recalls Ogorek, the executive director of the Secretariat for Evangelizing Catechesis for the archdiocese. “I didn’t even hear the whole song, but the refrain really stuck in my head.”

The song is “Unanswered Prayers,” and it captures the story of a man who goes to a hometown football game with his wife, a game where he meets his “old high school flame”—the one he prayed to God in high school to be his “for all times.” As he meets her again after all these years, he’s glad that God didn’t grant him that long-ago wish.

The heart of the song notes:

“Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
“Remember when you’re talking to the man upstairs
“That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he doesn’t care
“Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”

While that refrain has stayed with Ogorek through the years, he also believes it doesn’t capture the true essence of how God responds to our prayers.

“As I look back on the years that have passed since then, I understand the point he was trying to make,” Ogorek says. “It’s a nice story, and I don’t want to argue with Garth Brooks—although that might be fun, especially if it was in a low place.

“But what I’ve come to realize—and I think this is solid Catholic doctrine—is that, first of all, God always hears our prayers. And there’s no such thing as an unanswered prayer because God always answers our prayers. It’s just that he has a few key ways of answering them.

“Sometimes his answer is, ‘yes.’ Sometimes his answer is, ‘no.’ Sometimes his answer is, ‘not yet.’ And sometimes his answer is, ‘I have a better idea.’ ”

Ogorek believes that since “there’s no such thing as an unanswered prayer,” that creates “a very helpful posture toward our relationship with God.”

“We should pray,” he says. “We should ask God for things. He likes that. He wants us to ask for things. And we should be confident that he hears and will answer our prayers. But we also have to be open to what his answer is going to be. And no matter what his answer is, it’s always a good answer, too, because it helps move us along the path that he wants us to follow.”

Even if Brooks has a different view, Ogorek appreciates the song.

“Some songs have an impact on your life. The thoughts they provoke make them meaningful. That’s what I would say about this song,” Ogorek says. “It gave me food for subsequent thought and prayer. It was like a seed. As we’re talking now, I’m realizing that at that point in my life—I’m sure I was in my 20s or early 30s at the most—I was thinking about the future, and I was asking good questions and expressing my hopes in prayer to God.”

While God wants us to share our hopes for our lives with him, Ogorek says, God also has hopes for our lives.

“God has a plan for our life and whether we ask him what the plan is or not, he’s constantly trying to share his thoughts and feelings and dreams and goals for us in the ways that he does—sacred Scripture, the teaching of the Church. I could give you a laundry list.

“One way of putting it is, God tries to answer our prayers before we even pray them. Because he knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what’s going to make for a peaceful life on Earth and eternal life in heaven, so he’s constantly trying to make his will known to us.”

That understanding changed the way Ogorek approached God and his life.

“I didn’t stop setting goals for myself or wanting things consciously. I learned that as I thought about my future, I should probably invite God to weigh in on what that might look like.”

In our prayers, Ogorek says it’s also important to remember the prayer that Christ gave us, the Our Father, and the key phrase at the heart of it—“thy will be done.”

“The more we really learn to make that prayer request authentic and sincere, we realize it’s OK to ask God for certain things, and he wants us too, but it’s always in that context of ‘thy will be done,’ ” Ogorek says.

“And we can be confident that he hears our prayers, he answers our prayers, and whatever his answer is, it’s always a good answer because he’s making his will known to us and allowing us to be a part of manifesting it.”

A tribute to God’s gift of creation

Nick Schmutte isn’t afraid to admit that one song often makes him joyful to the point of tears.

“I have a master’s degree in biology, and I am fascinated by the complexity, diversity, functionality and beauty of all forms of life,” says Schmutte, a member of Mary, Queen of Peace Parish in Danville. “When I hear the hymn, ‘How Great Thou Art,’ it reminds me of the beauty of creation and frequently brings tears of joy to my eyes.

“When I see photos taken from the Webb telescope of galaxies a trillion light years away, the beauty and complexity of the universe, of all creation, fill me with awe.”
 

(Whether it’s a song from popular culture or from a church hymnal, you are invited to share your story of how that song has led you to a deeper level of faith, humanity or love. Please send your story and song(s) to John Shaughnessy at jshaughnessy@archindy.org or by mail in care of The Criterion, 1400 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46202. Please include your parish and a daytime phone number where you can be reached.) †