Dear Hyde:

God does listen to you. He loves you and He hears your prayers. The problem is that you are expecting some miracle, some action on God's part to resolve your situation without you doing your part. That is not how it works.

To begin with, God does not force anyone to do anything. He cannot force someone to love you or be your girlfriend. Frankly, God may have sent you 10 women anyone of whom could have been your friend, but YOU may have sent them away because of your wallowing in self-pity.

I can imagine that another possibility is that God will not answer your prayers until you discover that you can be whole without a girlfriend or a friend to talk to. That may be hard, but I see a little problem of co-dependency possible here. God is not going to encourage the dysfunction of co-dependency.

You need to let go and let God. Let go of this former girlfriend and get on with your life. Begin to get involved in activities and projects where you will meet people. In otherwords do the things you need to do to make friends.

This reminds me of the joke about the man who prayed to God to win the lottery. The man wanted this not out of greed, but to pay the hospital bills for his wife, get shoes for his children, etc.

The lottery came and went and the man did not win. The man prayed, "Lord, why did you not let me win the lottery? You know that I do not ask this out of greed."

The next lottery came and went and the man did not win. The man pleaded with God to let him win. This went on a couple more times.

Finally, just after losing the lottery, the man prayed, "Lord I do not understand, why will you not let me win the lottery just this once so I can take care of my family."

This time, God answered the man. God said, "Give me a break. At least buy a lottery ticket."

The moral of the story is that we must do our part. If you want God to bring to you a friend, then YOU must go out and do the things one does to make friends.

What should you do? Keep praying, but instead of sitting at home crying in your soup, get off your hind end and get involved in something where you will meet people. Get on with your life.

As for your former girlfriend, I know it is hard. Time will heal those wounds. My wife ran off with another man. It took me about five years to recover -- which is about average. So live your life, allow time to heal wounds, get involved, meet people, and know that God loves you and is with you every step of the way.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary