Articles
The List Gets Longer
Someone made this observation recently concerning their personal prayer list: It seems that as we get older, and consequently the more people we know, the more aware we are of others who are struggling – like the Hartsells – thus the longer our prayer lists get.
Of late I have heard of a young Christian man who lost his leg in a work accident. He has a family to support, and he is now in rehab to learn how to walk and work with a prosthetic leg. Another preaching friend in the Boston area developed a staph infection in his elbow and had to have surgery and be put on strong antibiotics in order to corral the infection. An elder’s wife is suffering through a second round of life-threatening cancer. A friend has had a series of debilitating ailments, the cause of which cannot be identified.
What’s going on? Life, that’s what. Most of us, when younger, are thriving and healthy. We cannot envision serious accidents or illness, and this lends itself to recklessness, procrastination and lack of sympathy for those who suffer. I know, for I was guilty of thinking in those ways. But as things begin to happen to friends and acquaintances – and us – we are confronted with our vulnerability, and we learn of the unremitting harshness of this world.
These truths make some bitter, and they make others better. If we are in the latter category, we find it easier to “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). We “repay no one evil for evil” (Rom. 12:17), for life is too short for such pettiness and self-inflicted pain. We are glad to pray for others, for we can easily picture ourselves as the sufferer, and this is what we would desperately want others to do for us.
My “pray for” list is pretty long right now, but I’m just glad I’m not on the list – yet. But I will be.
