James 24:7

Like everyone else I have had the horrible events at Virginia Tech on my mind all week.  This morning I sat down and wrote a little piece on intercessory prayer.  While it does not speak directly to what happened at Virginia Tech, I hope it does remind us that there really is nothing more loving than to pray for those who are suffering.  I hope you find it helpful.  If you do, please feel free to pass this page link on to others who may also find it helpful.  Thank you for reading my blog.  I do appreciate your many kind and encouraging words to me.

Jim

The Most Loving Thing You Can Do

“This is the very best way to love: lay down your life for your friends.”  -Jesus

            I confess that for a few moments I stopped entering into prayer with my friends and observed what was going on.  I listened as each one prayed his or her prayers of praise and thanksgiving and confession.  I listened as each one named the concerns of friends and strangers who stood in need of prayer and I asked myself: “What can be more loving than this?  What can be more loving than to ask the God of all might and power to act on behalf of one who is not even present and who may even be unknown to us?”

            As the calming rhythms of prayer ascended to the Father, I gave free reign to my imagination.  I thought of the simplicity of the moment, of how these kind people gave their time to close their eyes and bow their heads and humbly approach the throne of grace on behalf of those who were not present.  I listened as they prayed for the suffering, the grieving, the dying, and the lost.  I heard them lift up the names of the unemployed, the unhappy, and the uninspired.  I watched their prayers span the globe on behalf of the strange and the stranger and ascend like the smoke of incense to the presence of the Creator God who makes all things new.

            I thought about those for whom they prayed.  Some of them had scribbled their requests on a Prayer Concern Card and dropped the card into the offering basket on Sunday.  Some had emailed their concerns to the virtual prayer box.  Some had requested prayer face to face.  Some concerns had simply crossed our paths.

             I wondered how many of those who made requests gave another thought to the subject of their concern after making their request.  I know some did. (I recalled the request I made to the gathered when my granddaughter was born with a health problem that could affect the rest of her life and how comforted I felt in knowing that the people to whom I made my request known would actually pray.)

            I wondered how many of those who made requests remembered that there would be those who would “lay down their lives” for a couple of hours on Monday night for no other reason than to pray for the very matter they had brought to the church.  “Were they praying too?”  I wondered.  “Were they genuinely appreciative that others took time to pray?”

            As I listened to the prayers I thought about all of the times I had failed to pray for people who had asked me to pray even though I had assured them that I would pray.  I also thought of the many requests I had uttered and then forgotten.  I thought about how often I had failed to appreciate those who laid down their hours for me and my concerns.

            An odd memory crossed my mind.   When I was a rock musician standing on a stage for the thousandth time while aimless crowds danced the night away, I sometimes pretended that there was no music, no pounding rhythm, no heavy beat on 2 and 4.  I would secretly smile as I imagined that these folks had just suddenly burst into rhythmic gyrations for no apparent reason.  Dancing looks funny when there is no music.

            “What if there is no God?”  I heard myself asking as I listened to the prayers.  “What if there really is no God to hear our prayers?  Would this moment of be like those moments in those dark clubs when I imagined there was no music and people engaged in spontaneous group gyration.  Would this be the ultimate absurdity….people with closed eyes and bowed heads believing that their words ascended to God while in truth they only climbed to the ceiling and bounced back down as empty as when they rose?  Would that be as funny as spontaneous group gyration?"

            I decided that prayer even in the absence of God would not be funny or absurd.  Even without God, prayer would be among the kindest things we could do.  To remember the suffering of others, to call it to consciousness and to name it out loud would conceivably be an act of simple kindness even in a Godless world.  If nothing else it would serve to remind us…

            My mind turned to a profound moment in my life when I lay flat on my back for the eleventh day in a hospital bed.  I remembered hitting the bottom as I wondered whether my ragged heart would ever stop with its fibrillation and tachycardia.  I remembered how there came the sweet and reassuring word that not only is there God but that “God is love” and that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God we find in Christ Jesus our Lord.  I remembered the assurance I received that day when I realized that whether I lived or died I would do so into the love of God. 

            We pray to God who lives, who loves, who is love, and who holds us in the palm of His mighty hand.  Our prayers arise to God on the fragrance of praise and thanksgiving.  Our prayers arise to the God who not only hears but leans forward to listen to the word spoken, the word unspoken, the word unspeakable.

            When we pray to God about the suffering and concerns of others- whether friend, foe or foreign- we do one of the kindest things we can.  We lay down our minutes and hours – we lay down our lives- for them and we lift them up to the loving grace of the infinitely compassionate God.

            What can be more loving than that?