A friend I grew up with is going through a big health shock. Emergency surgery. Waiting on pathology reports. The stuff that gets shared in group texts to ask for hope and prayer.
It’s really got me. He’s my age and has kids my kids ages. He is like me. I could be him.
So I’ve been praying for him.
My life in prayer is not altogether clear to me, but this I know how to do.
And as I’ve been praying and walking and observing and praying, this hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” has come to mind.
I grew up on these old hymns in church. I really love them in so many ways. They’re full of something like passion, spirit, or what I might think of has a striving for The Good Life.
There’s a lot of downtrodden sinner language in them too, which caused me a lot of issues in my early 20s. Not so much now.
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.
That’s hard to make sense of, and make true, but it is beautiful.