Keeping Challenges in Hand

I had the humble privilege to sit with a friend today as she prepared to go into surgery. Stories were shared with another mutual friend, laughter rolled out into the hallway then, just before the 'Transport Person' was ready to roll her out to Surgery Waiting, we joined hands in prayer. According to the Evangelical Catechism (Question 101), "Prayer is the conversation of the heart with God . . . ." and it is at times such as these that the true nature of our heart is revealed, both before God and in the hearing of those with whom we pray.

Odd, the kinds of things that swirl through my mind in the midst of ministry and this morning was no different. While holding hands in prayer, while speaking the words of my heart into the ears of God, it felt like talking with an old friend and, then and there, it occurred to me that, "This is what it means to keep our daily challenges in hand." You hold hands with a friend and pray.

In taking the hand of one with whom you share the journey, bowing your head, and letting your heart speak/listen, you are taking the hand of God in the midst of every moment. When a prayer is uttered, whether whispered in the tones of the heart that only God can hear or spoken through a microphone that a congregation might join along, God is in the clasped hand, the communicative spirit, and the shared joys and concerns.

Does God need us to pray to know what it is that is in our hearts? I sincerely doubt it, but I do fully believe that we need to pray that we might listen to what our heart has to say to God, that the lips of our spirit might be joined to the ear of God's Spirit in intimate conversation, that our soul might flower before the Son in adoration and praise. We are the ones in need of taking God's hand in love, for God has already extended God's Hand towards us through the presence of Christ among us. In regularly exercising our faith in such a personal manner, we open the door to deepened understanding, fullness in relationship, and comfort and healing in times of distress. My prayer this morning was not so much about my relationship with God, but about affording the heart of my friend to rest in the embrace of the One who is already holding her, a reminder of what already is . . . before ever we knew it might be.

"Conversation of the heart with God . . . ." I sat with an old Friend today and shared the journey with a new friend, keeping the challenges in Hand, allowing our hearts to speak their truth before the One who is Truth, and resting in the Healing that flows throughout every age. What more might a person ask to begin their day so well, so completely?

Only in clasping hands together in prayer are we able to keep our challenges in hand.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don

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