<p>Okay, I’m not a theologian, but I’ll try, especially since it doesn’t look as if anyone else is going to answer the OP’s question seriously. </p>
<p>Who is God? We can’t really completely comprehend Him, but he isn’t just a superior human being with an unlimited life span and a higher IQ. </p>
<p>Our values are not necessarily God’s. For example, if you believe that there is another, potentially better life in the next world, then Death is not an evil. God may not feel the same about a death from cancer or war as we do. Moreover, sometimes such events cause people to turn to God. (There’s an old saying that there are no atheists in fox holes.) So, it’s at least possible than these events don’t rank up there with things He needs to deal with before He considers college admissions. </p>
<p>I doubt that I am articulating this well, but our idea of “trivial” may not be the same as God’s. So, who are we to say when God will choose to intervene in our world and when He won’t? Isn’t it more than a bit arrogant for us to think that if God exists, His “To Do List” has to be ranked in the order in which WE would prioritize it? </p>
<p>God did give us free will. Much of the evil in the world comes from our exercise of it. In most cases, God does not intervene. He allows us to exercise our free will. We often do so to do harm to ourselves or others. This is evident not only in obvious cases–a parent abuses his child–but in others less obvious–we pollute a stream over lots of years and a woman who drinks from the polluted water gives birth to a child with a birth defect. Or we pollute the atmosphere and 20% of the South Bronx get asthma. In most cases, God doesn’t intervene to stop the evil people cause by exercising their free will. He lets our acts cause the natural results. </p>
<p>In the New Testament, Christ says that His Father knows every swallow in the sky and none of them can die without Him knowing and that each of us is more important to His Father than any swallow. He also tells the parable about the corrupt judge who gives justice to the poor widow because she just never gives up asking–which suggests the power of prayer. </p>
<p>So, I believe that it is all right to pray to God for things that matter to us, no matter how trivial they may seem in the overall scheme of things. I also believe that God hears all our prayers and answers them–He just doesn’t always say yes. I believe that God performs many “ordinary miracles” every day for those who pray to Him. </p>
<p>Do you remember the entertainer Danny Thomas? (His daughter Marlo may be more familiar to you,.) He tried to make it as an entertainer. It was his life’s ambition, but he was failing misearbly. He wasn’t making enough money to support his family. Thomas was a devout Catholic, and so he chose to pray to St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes–essentially Jude is the saint you ask for help when nobody expects you to get it. He promised St. Jude that if he got a break which enabled him to earn his living doing what he loved–being an entertainer-- he would do something important to honor the name of St. Jude. Well, if you know the story of Danny Thomas, you know that within a few days of that prayer and promise, he was offered a part which set him along the road to a very successful career as an entertainer and producer. He kept his promise by building St. Jude’s Hospital for Children, which has helped a lot of children with serious illnesses. </p>
<p>I’m sure that non-believers will say that the prayer followed by an unexpected job offer is simply coincidence and that there was no causation. But Thomas himself certainly believed that there was. Put on the hat of a believer for a moment. Is what Thomas prayed for really trivial? It wasn’t to him. And, by granting his wish, God enabled Thomas to keep his promise to St. Jude and do a lot of good in the world. Good that meets our human standard for important–like saving children from early deaths. In this way, to those of us who do believe, God allowed a public manifestation of the power of prayer. </p>
<p>I certainly don’t believe that God loves those who got into their first choice colleges more than those who did not. I am very much aware that there are good and devout people who pray hard for things that it seems clear cut are in their best interest, but do not get what they want. Like Job, they wonder why God seems to have abandoned them. Why? I don’t know. But I do believe that there are cases in which God does help us and grant the things we have prayed for. I believe that in some cases He does so to strengthen the Faith of those who do believe in them. In others, He does so because the help He gives will enable the recipient to do much good that might otherwise not be done. In others, He does so for reasons we don’t know. </p>
<p>In any event, I do think that if we want something and it is important to us we should not hesitate to pray for it. God may grant our request and, like Thomas, we may firmly believe that His intercession is the only means by which we could have gotten an affirmative answer. </p>
<p>PS–This is a sincere answer, but I have no desire to debate the existence of God on this forum. All those who believe in Him struggle with the problem of evil. It IS hard to believe in God when we see some of the evil in the world. I’m not pretending otherwise. I’m just trying to answer the question.</p>