Two rowboats rowed along the river that once had been a street.
A priest sat high atop his chapel, no higher place could he retreat.
“Come down,” they yelled, “Get in the boat, the water’s rising and you’ll drown!”
The priest said, “God is my protector” and waved them off with knowing frown.

A rescue barge came to the chapel, the flood had reached the steeple.
The priest said “God will care for me, go save the other people.”
A helicopter dropped a rope and tried to lure him in,
The priest refused all earthly help, the floods now reached his chin.

The water rose to record height, the padre sank beneath the tide;
The papers said one life was lost, the town’s lone priest had died.
Now in line at the Pearly Gates, he was quickly ushered in,
God praised him for unselfish work and the way he’d hated sin.

But now his faith had failed the test and he started to complain,
“Look God, I prayed you’d save my life, were all my prayers in vain?”
God, quite perturbed, just shook his head, “You certainly made it hard,
But I really tried to save your life, I sent three boats and the National Guard!”

In the twenty-third Psalm, David said, “The Lord is my shepherd.” When using this text for a sermon, preachers often depict the sheep as too dumb to survive without a shepherd. Sheep are certainly well domesticated and they require a little more attention than a range steer but they are not helpless.

God doesn’t expect us to be helpless either. Waiting on God is about someone who is still waiting on God long after God has come and gone. If you are waiting for an answer to a prayer, look around. He may have already answered.