Food for the Journey
March 11, 2021
The Power of Prayer
Pastor Dianne O. Loufman
On Wednesday we, as a staff, discovered that the link on our website for prayer submissions hasn’t been working for months now. This went straight to our hearts and Ann and I immediately started following up with people to hear how those whom we were requested to pray for were doing. Can you imagine asking to be prayed for and just that request for prayer not being answered!?!
Wednesday evening at our mid-week Lenten service while we were singing, I started lighting candles for those we had been asked to pray for and tears started welling up. Each candle I lit and placed in the sandbox elicited more tears until I could have just knelt and wept. It made me realize for the umpteenth time in my life how simple acts of lighting candles and lifting names to God carry power – the power to unburden hearts, the power to make room for God and the power to heal ones praying and ones prayed for.
If you listened to the service, you could hear that I was struggling to get my voice under control. I was trying to go somewhere else in my head to shut off the flood gates. I was looking at Logan, our intern, wondering if I could ask her to finish the service, but the benediction is in my head; I didn’t know if it was in hers. So, I didn’t get the full cleansing that comes with a good cry but I did get the reminder of how present God is to us and how present all of you and your hopes, joy, and sorrows are to me.
You who are our deep peace, enter in this day reminding us of how present you are to us and how close we are held together in you. We lift ourselves and all for whom we worry and pray to You. Amen.