Good
morning. I know that many of you here are on social media, and I suspect that
you’ve noticed the same thing that I have. It's become common nowadays for
people to ask for prayers. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with asking for
people to pray for you. But it’s becoming a cliché. You’ve seen it, “I’m going
to the dentist today and asking for prayers that I don't have any cavities.” And
it's become just as much of a cliche for people to then comment “praying for
you. Or We're praying for you.” Or even worse just using the emoji showing two
hands together in prayer. Not to be judgmental, but it’s like “I don’t
have time to type 14 letters, but I want them to see that I was here.” It's
just become a figure of speech and doesn’t seem to really mean anything to many
of the people who see it and respond to it.
Let me tell
you why this bothers me sometimes.
First let me
give you some background. A lot of you will remember that five years ago in May,
I had a scary situation. To remind you, I woke up to the alarm clock one
Thursday morning in May 2017 and my balance was shot. I could barely stand, let
alone walk, so I staggered into the bathroom to get ready. I thought it was an
inner ear problem and just needed to clear up. Somehow or another I managed to
get to the bathtub and in the shower and as I stood there and got finished and ready
to get out. I looked down at my right foot and I just knew that if I picked up
that foot I was going to fall. So, I called for Monica to come help me, and
between the two of us I made it back to the bedroom. I still thought this was
just temporary and figured that any minute something would just pop, and
it would go away so I just pushed through it. You know how stubborn I can be. I
go out and get in the car and drove to work and for the next two hours tried to
push through and realized I wasn't gonna be able to and it wasn't gonna go away,
so I told the boss I had to go home
Went to a
doctor that afternoon who couldn’t find anything wrong, she sent me home to see
if it would improve. I now tell people to always go to the emergency room first,
they have more equipment plus they won’t let you leave until they know what’s
wrong.
The next day
Friday was a repeat of Thursday. Made it to work, piddled for two hours, went
home. God was definitely my co-pilot on those drives! I think the part that made
a big impression on me after the fact was my oldest daughter Ellen couldn’t get
over me being able to drive at all. “Dad, you were driving with a stroke!” Then
I just sat around the rest of the day.
I finally
actually had enough sense Friday night to call out sick for Saturday. So, Saturday
around noon or so, I was sitting on the couch eating a sandwich, had a sudden
weird sensation, every muscle in my body sort of tensed up, I remember thinking
to myself “Something’s happening to me right now.” I lost my balance and fell
over onto the couch. I could not get back up, so I called Joshua and Ricky to
come and give me a hand. Joshua came around to the front with me, grabbed my
arms and shoulders and tried to sit me up. I was dead weight; I couldn’t help
at all. Ricky was standing behind the couch and he saw something. He said, “Dad
move your left arm.” I said, “is it moving?” He said “no, move your left leg.”
I said, “I can’t.” He said, “that's it I'm calling 911.” Those boys probably
saved my life, because they didn’t panic. I was in fact suffering from a
stroke. Actually two, one Thursday and then this on Saturday.
As you can
imagine I was admitted to the hospital Saturday. Monica came back on Sunday
after church and while she was sitting with me, she made the comment that
everyone at church was worried about me and was praying for me. My immediate
answer was I know they are I can feel it. And I can't exactly explain the feeling,
but I knew I had it and where it came from. Looking back, I suppose you could
call it a sense of calm and confidence. I was in the hospital for two weeks
between therapy and treatment and so forth and I was never afraid that I might
die. I never worried about the future or my recovery, I just knew everything
was going to be ok if I worked hard enough. Monica’s amazing and total support
through that time had a lot to do with it, I’d never have made it without her, but
I know that the cause of my peace of mind was the Holy Spirit standing
with me in response to all the prayers.
There are
other examples of prayer’s effectiveness that I’m aware of. Monica’s mother
recently said that after Eddie died, she had a lot of trouble sleeping. Finally,
one night she couldn’t take it anymore and prayed for sleep and went right out
for hours. She has since started praying every night for the peace to sleep,
and ever since then she sleeps like a log.
We all know
our friend Richard has recently been going through some pretty intensive
chemotherapy. He has mentioned to a couple of people that he can feel the
prayers of people. He tells me that there is “so much to be said about prayer
and the ability to feel it, and there’s so much comfort to feeling it and
knowing it.”
One-time
last year at Sam's Club, a friend of mine came up to me while I was doing some
paperwork and out of the blue she said, “Do you believe that prayer helps?”
Instantly without even thinking about it I answered, “I know that it does.” And
yes, I asked if I could pray for her or if there was something I could help her
with. I was actually a bit surprised that she asked me. I was unaware that she
had any idea that I went to church or had any spiritual connection. And looking
back on it, I don’t want to brag or anything, but I think that’s the way it
should be.
And I know
that prayer helps because whenever I'm faced with a tough decision, or a
situation that I am nervous about, like this standing up here talking to you
today, or when Freddie would ask me to do solos, I take a second and ask God to
send the Holy Spirit to stand beside me and give me strength. And it helps
every time.
In 2018, we
decided that our part of Antioch, down Hamilton Church Road and near Thomas
Edison Elementary was getting too crowded and congested, so we decided to move away
from there. After a couple of months of looking and packing, the day came. I
was frankly worn out from all the stress of packing and closing and what-not, and
the night before THE MOVE, lying in bed I had a minor panic attack, I guess. I
was so anxious and worried and upset that I couldn’t fall asleep. After tossing
and turning for what seemed like hours, I finally prayed and asked for help to
get some rest I remember saying “to be in the best shape to help my family
tomorrow.” Quickly afterward, I did sleep and felt better. Except for the rain,
moving day went fine. Even though Monica made me wait outside for the movers
because my pacing was driving her crazy.
Jesus
talked about prayer often and prayed often.
From
Matthew 6:5-8
Jesus taught, “When
you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … but when you pray, go
into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.”
Summary
from the BBC, of all places, in a study guide for teenagers:
Jesus said that prayer
should be a private time between God and the worshipper.
Jesus does not mean that it is wrong to pray with others, but the prayers
should be sincere and for the right motives.
And in Luke 11 and
Matthew 6 He teaches us the Lord’s prayer. Not to mention His prayers in the
Garden of Gethsemane.
My point of all this is that prayer to me is
something that’s very real and very effective. And it often seems to me that it
has been made into simply a habit, or worse a cliche. This has always been a
bit of an issue to me. I remember clearly that several years ago, a few weeks
after a re-appointment, I went to the new pastor, sorry not sure which one, and
mentioned that I liked the way he had added more time for personal prayer into
the order of worship. I remember specifically that after Communion was a moment
for reflection and prayer. It occurred to me at the time that previous pastors
had, I assume inadvertently, cut a lot of that out, maybe in preference for
community prayer, or more music, or maybe even to save time.
I think this is a real issue in the world
today. And the world could certainly use a little divine inspiration. Or maybe
even intervention.
I now always
pray a small prayer before I type “Prayers offered.”
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