I pray all of the time: when I run, when I drive, when I put the kids to sleep, when I'm walking the dog -- pretty much whenever I have a second of peace. I guess it's because I grew up in a family that prayed all of the time. When my mom was sick, her friends would stop by to pray. The hospital pre-op room was packed with friends as they prayed together before each of her surgeries. And we'd pray about everything from world peace to school exams to the dog's health.
All of the years I've been praying, it still really freaks me out when prayers are answered. When we were selling our house and it had been on the market for over a year, my mom prayed that someone would just fall in love with it. And they did, but they didn't buy it. So we asked my mom to clarify a bit next time and pray that someone would buy our house for a good price. And, you guessed it, we received a bid for just below asking -- which was higher than the true value of the home -- AND it was a cash sale that closed in 10 days. Go mom!
This week I experienced "the answer" twice and it still shocks me. Honestly, this time it kind of scared me.
Prayer Numero Uno: Please make me healthy enough to finish the marathon
About three weeks ago as I was getting ready to leave for work, I made a bad decision. Emily was having a hard time getting up the stairs to the kitchen and I didn't want her to be stuck all day next to our back door, so I decided to lift her up -- all 80+ pounds of her lazy yellow lab self -- while I was wearing really, really high heels. And .... ouch! Pain shot through my back. It was terrible. I was sweating and crying. Later that morning, when I went to the doctor, I cried walking from the car to the doctor's front desk.
The doctor told me to lay off exercise for three weeks. I iced and stretched and prayed and asked my running friends to pray and had a few massages. Still, I was warned not to run and just four days before the marathon I was still feeling the discomfort. Plus, all of my back issues had traveled to other parts of my body: hips, IT band, etc. I only ran once the three weeks before the marathon & I was scared.
But on marathon morning, I set out with 50,000 other runners and finished. It was hard and my body felt every mile, but my back held strong and even with a few extra challenges, not only did I finish, but I finished with a great time. And my body actually felt better the day after the marathon that I had felt just a week earlier. Odd, right?
Prayer Numero Dos: Please keep me safe while I travel this week and keep my family safe at home.
This is a pretty common request. I travel quite a bit and usually pray about everyone's safety on my way to the airport. Today was no different. "Please watch over the kids and keep us all safe" etc.
I was driving on 290 and traffic was moving along at a nice pace -- about 60 mph -- for 7:30 in the morning. I was singing along to whatever was on the radio and keeping an eye on the cars around me. There was a white VW GTI to my right that reminded me of a former co-worker who is a triathlete. And I was singing along when the van in front of me put on his brakes pretty quickly and the cars to my left stopped even faster, some pulling onto the side of the road to stop in time. Because the van was in front of me, I missed what had happened, but I saw that the white VW GTI had crashed into the cement wall next to the left lane crushing the entire front of the car and there were about four other cars involved.
It was an accident that I missed by less than a second. Not only that, but the white van in front of me blocked not only my view but protected me from responding in a way that might have caused more damage. (Like if I freaked out because I saw the accident and over-corrected and hit some other car.)
Oddly, while I write this blog about prayer, I'm pretty sure that the guy next to me on the plane is getting a hand job from his girlfriend. Guess I should start praying that they decide to be al little more discrete.