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Praying It Forward

Last year, I visited my seminary for a lecture series and to spend time with some dear friends.  Perhaps I was there more for the friends than the lectures. 

As we were sitting in a circle sharing our various ministry stories, my friend Michael’s phone rang.  It was the seminary president.  After Michael finished the conversation he explained that the president was a bit offended that we had not let him know that we were going to be in town.  He insisted that in the future we let him know that he could spend some time with us.

Frankly, it had never occurred to me that the president was that interested in us or had time to spend with us.  After all he was an extremely busy man. 

My friends and I were not happy with some of the decisions the seminary had made.  We of course were foolish enough to think we could do a better job than the president.  “If I were president…”

Later it hit me.  Our president had had a rough time lately.  He had major pressures and demands on him.  He had complaints from every angle.  Probably every call he got was some jerk telling him how he should do his job. 

I took my friend Michael aside and said, “Let’s go pray for, Ted.”  Michael called his secretary and we got some time on his stacked calendar for the next morning. 

We arrived and sat out in his reception area awaiting.  He finally came out and greeted us very cordially and said, “I am so sorry but I have another engagement very soon.  Can this wait?” 

I said, “We want to pray for you.” 

His eyes widened and his whole demeanor changed.  It was as if he had been holding his breath for the last minute and now he exhaled.  When was the last time anyone had come to see him and not wanted some from him?  When was the last time anyone had shown concern for him?

He smiled and said, “Gentleman, that I have time for.”  We went back into his office.  We invited him to sit down and asked him how we could pray for him.  He shared a variety of things that were weighing on him.  Michael and I stood behind him and laid our hands on his shoulders and we prayed. 

When we were finishing, he reached back with his hands and took our hands and prayed for each of us.  When he was done, he stood up with emotion on his face and embraced us both.  He said, “I cannot tell you how much this means and how much I needed this.” 

The next day, he was leading a ceremony to honor the academic dean who was on his way to be president of another seminary.  He told the story of me and Michael praying for him and laying hands on him.  He asked the dean, soon to be president, to sit down.  He invited the whole assembly to lay hands on.  Everyone had a hand on someone who had a hand on the dean.  

Then he commenced to pray it forward.

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Speaking Terms With God

While serving as a chaplain I remember visiting with a woman who had just had her second leg amputated.

She said, “I know God does everything for a reason, but…I just can’t figure this one out.  I’m not mad at God.  I just wish I knew why. He’s been good to me.  He gave me a wonderful husband, and he has been so good to me through this whole time.  Also I have a wonderful daughter.  I just hate not being able to care for them right now.  I cared for my father when he was sick. It’s just hard being here.  I feel like God is punishing me.”

I asked her if she had prayed about it.  She said, “I want to pray about it, but I can’t pray.  I try but I just can’t seem to talk to God.  I’m used to praying to God about everything.”

I responded, “What if I said that it is just fine to be angry at God.  That if you were angry at God that he could handle that.  God would not punish you for being angry at him. I wouldn’t blame you at all for being angry.  I would be too.”

She asked very cautiously, “It’s ok to be angry at God?”

It turned out she was indeed angry at God.  She prayed that God would save her leg and she still lost it.  She had been blaming God for the loss of her legs, but in the process she had lost her relationship with God.  It’s not that she ceased to believe in God or that she lost the salvation that God had given her.     

She still couldn’t pray, but she allowed me to pray on her behalf expressing her questioning and her anger.  As I prayed holding her hand her emotional being became like an iceberg breaking up.  She was weeping and she starting praying along with me with “Yes, Lord”s and “Thank you , Lord”s.  God’s Spirit came flooding into her. 

When I visited her the next day she had a smile on her face and told me,”I had a good talk with God after you left and we are on speaking terms again.  In the middle of the night I hollered out so loud at God that the nurses came running down the hall to ask if I needed help.”

She had all the help she needed.

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Prayer Awakening

In the past year, a member of our church was diagnosed with dementia and was placed in a nursing home. Mike still has a fair amount of awareness.  He knows his wife and he still knows me, but otherwise he lives in an alternate reality.  

The dementia has been coming on for a while, but he has suffered from other mental conditions for years.  He has an amazing mind, though.  He can still quote much of the Bible verbatim. 

Over the years I have prayed with him many times.  While he always asks for prayer he never really seems to be praying with me.  He doesn’t even close his eyes for Heaven’s sake! 

Today I went visit him at the nursing home.  I had my Ethiopian pastor friend Dereje with me.  Having just finished our pastors’ prayer group we were on our way to a committee meeting for a non-profit primary health care organization we are both involved in.  First, I needed to drop by and see Mike. 

His wife was visiting him as well.  So we all gathered around Mike who was lying on his bed, but glad to have visitors.  We held hands and began to pray.  I prayed first, then Mike’s wife, and then Dereje. 

It was a beautiful time of prayer.  We prayed for healing for his body and mind and peace for his soul.  Meanwhile, Mike had fallen asleep.  He often gets his days and nights turned around. 

We said amen.  His wife said, “I feel like singing that “Amen” song.”  We sang “A-a-amen! A-a-amen!  A-amen! Amen! Amen!”  There was a lot of joy in the room.  Mike slept. 

We began to say our good-byes when we heard Mike’s voice, “Heavenly Father, thank you for all that you have given us.  Please protect my wife and bless her.  We ask all these things in the name of your son our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Amen.” 

We all turned to look at him.  His eyes were still closed, but his heart was quite awake.

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Prayer Hungry

Have you ever awoken with a huge appetite?  The kind where you feel like you could take on Paul Bunyan in a flapjack eating contest?  I awoke with a hunger like this for prayer on a day that I was the pastor of the day at Siloam Family Health Center.

As I have mentioned, about half a dozen people are prayed for at Siloam on a given day.  It wouldn’t be nearly enough for the appetite the Lord was giving me on this day.  The number that came to my mind was 40. 

I do not tell this story to lift myself up in anyway, but to share how satisfying praying with others can be.  I wish I woke up hungry like this every day, but usually I am more interested in flapjacks. 

The employees and volunteers of the day gather every morning before they open the doors for prayer.  What a great place to work!  They pray for God to be seen through their work and that they themselves might see him at work. 

This particular day everyone was tired.  They held a big donor event the day before for which they had been planning for months.  One of the volunteers who I know to have a remarkable keen sense of the presence of God said, “Why do I feel like God is going to rain down fire from Heaven today?”

I introduced our mission for the day of praying for 40 people over the next 8 hours.  Their eyes brightened up. I suggested that we start with praying for each other. 

After we prayed, a line of employees and volunteers formed at the pastoral office door.  I kept a log of who was prayed for.  Then they started sending patients my way. 

I used about every translator we had.  We prayed in Arabic, Spanish, Korean, and even English.  I prayed with Kenyans, Burmese, Iraqis, Mexicans, Chinese, and Croatians.  I prayed with the CEO and the head of medicine.  We prayed in the lobby, the kids play area, patient rooms, offices, and even the billing station.  We prayed for healing, for hope, for citizenship, for jobs, and for loved ones separated by distance but not by spirit.  

With an hour to go we needed to pray with twelve more to get to forty.  Laurie, the occupational therapist, saw that I was starting to tire.  She grabbed me and started going up to employees and patients and saying, “You need prayer!  Let’s pray!”  By the time the hour was complete we made it to 46! 

We may never know what impact these prayers had on people, but I know it had an impact on me and the Siloam staff.  At the next pastoral care meeting a month or so later, I learned that our prayer rampage had kicked off a great week for them.  They felt a spiritual lift that impacted the way they cared for people.  They wouldn’t be satisfied with praying for a few.

I came home stuffed full of something much better than even flapjacks…the Spirit.  I was exhausted and full at the same time.  I dozed off remembering all the stories and faces that I had heard and seen and how the Spirit had indeed rained down upon us from heaven

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Chatting With Willie

I first saw Willie chatting away at the nurse’s station as I walked through the secure double doors on my way to pray with a parishioner awaiting surgery.  Whatever he was saying was making the nurse grin.  He walked on down the hallway chatting as he went. 

I found my parishioner’s room and entered still amused by the man I would soon know as Willie.  As I chatted a bit with Jo, the he came in to prepare her to be rolled on to surgery.  Jo is a chatt-er as well. Never knew a stranger in her life.  She introduced herself and then said, “This is my pastor.” 

His eyes lit up and he said, “I’m Willie, pastor.  It does my heart good to know that there is a pastor here today.  Sure does.  Lemme shake your hand.”  We shook. “Yes, sir. It is good to have a pastor here today.  Remember Willie when you pray because I sure do need it.”  I promised I wouldn’t forget.

“Would you also remember my daughter.  They got her here today, too.”  His perpetual smile wavered. “Pastor, they think she tried to take her own life, but I don’t believe it.  Remember her when you pray, too.”  He left.

I took Jo’s hand and prayed for her surgery.  We prayed then for Willie and his daughter. 

Later in the recovery room as Jo was coming to, Willie came in chatting away with the other hospital employees.  You could tell that they liked him.  He left smiles everywhere.  He saw me and said, “Pastor, I know you prayed for me and my daughter.  I felt it.  I thank you kindly, pastor…Yes, my daughter’s doing just fine. I think she’s going to be just fine.  Good to have a pastor here today.  God is good.”

“All the time,” I responded.

A nurse overheard and said, “I know you’re talkin’ about my Father.”  Willie said, “No.  He’s talkin’ about OUR Father.”  He smiled, then wheeled Jo out to the car, chatting all the time.

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