Can You Feel the Prayers?
Can You Feel the Prayers?
Dear Survivors of Hurricane Katrina¾
We had a friend named Tom Johnson in Chicago. He’d been in remission from Leukemia for 10 years before he got sick again¾a long time to keep carrying the message. Tom used to tell this story.
Tom had a friend named Sue, who always used to pray for him whenever he needed help with anything. She worked in an accounting department, and she used to get all her friends to pray for Tom. One day he called her and said, “Sue, I’ve been diagnosed with Leukemia. Could you crank up the ladies in accounting and ask them to send some prayers?” So she did.
A couple days later, Sue asked the ladies in accounting if they were still praying for her friend Tom. They said, “What do you mean, your friend Tom? We thought we were supposed to be praying for your brother Tom!” Sue set the record straight, and the ladies got to work praying for the right Tom.
A couple hours later, Sue got a call from her brother Tom. She was about to tell him about the funny thing that had happened, but he cut her off. “Sue,” he said, “I’ve gotta tell you. I don’t understand it, but for the past couple of days I’ve been feeling so good!!!”
Prayers work. The prayers of millions of people in this country, in this world, are going out to you. People are wishing you well, wishing you comfort and healing and hope. We don’t pretend the prayers will take away your loss, pain, exhaustion, confusion, anger, or fear, but we hope they’ll put something else in there alongside that experience. I don’t know if it’s the seed of hope and healing, or just the knowledge that you’re not alone¾that somebody knows you’re going through this.
Please accept our love and our prayers.
¾Pam Woll, Chicago