Note: On Saturdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
(Jesus) woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4:39-40, NRSVCE)
I saw the message before I saw the friend request: “Please pray for me. I had breast surgery for the removal of cancer and am having anxiety.” I don’t know her at all, virtually or in the real world; she lives nearly two thousand miles away. I checked our friends in common; there were eight, and several of them had kindly posted “thanks for the invite, praying!” on her page.
So I got judgey.
Where was her faith? I wondered. Why was she reaching out to total strangers who showed up in her suggested friends list? My prayer list is burgeoning right now, as yours may be: real-world friends with sick parents; with parents who have died recently; with spouses whose bodies are filled with cancer; with very real worries about their children, their jobs, their own health. Why would I add a stranger to the list?
Then I thought, where was my faith, that one simple request took me immediately into windy Pharisee-land?
So I stopped. I prayed for her as she requested.
And there was great calm.
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