When Ben Patterson was chaplain at Westmont College he told of a time when he ruptured his disc and the doctor prescribed six weeks of total bed rest. Heavily medicated and lying flat on his back, he found that reading was virtually impossible. In that incapacitated state, he learned an important lesson about prayer.
“I was helpless. I was also terrified. What was this all going to mean? How was I to take care of my family? What about the church? I was the only pastor it had, and I could do nothing for it. Out of sheer desperation, I decided to pray for the church. I opened the church directory and prayed for each member of the congregation daily. It took nearly two hours, but since there was nothing else I could do for the church, I figured I might as well pray for it. It was not piety that made me do it; it was boredom and frustration.
But over the weeks, the prayer grew sweet. One day near the end of my convalescence, I was praying and I told the Lord, ‘You know, it’s been wonderful, these prolonged times we have spent together. It’s too bad I don’t have time to do it when I am well.’”
“God’s answer came swift and blunt. He said to me, ‘Ben, you have just as much time when you’re well as when you are sick. It’s the same twenty-four hours in either case. The trouble with you is that when you’re well, you think you’re in charge. When you’re sick, you know you’re not.’”
Ouch! Does this truth sting anyone else besides me? For a copy of the BICYCLE POEM that Pastor Bruce read in church on Sunday, check out our Facebook page and subscribe while you are there https://www.facebook.com/answersfrommomanddad