Prayer Changes Things

My mom has this little notepad that all flowery and petite, and says across the top “Prayer Changes Things.” I used it to write down the messages that had been left on our home phone. I also may have used it to write down directions to somewhere. Whatever I used it for, the somewhat cheesy sentiment stayed in my head.

The second thing I did when I found out my mom had a stroke, after waking up my roommates and crying a bit, was ask them to pray. I certainly couldn’t pray for my mom right then – I was in too much shock. But I asked them to pray, and asked them to tell the rest of my internship team what was going on, so they could pray, too.

And then, on the car ride to the hospital (thanks roomie for driving me!) I called a lot of other close friends to tell them what had happened, and to ask them to pray too, (sorry for waking you all up super early in the morning) and to ask them to pass along what was going on to more people, so more people would be praying. And I kept sending out email updates, with more and more prayer requests.

Most of the time right now, I can barely pray. The only prayers I’ve really been able to handle have been “please” (in other words, please heal my mom), and “thank you Jesus, you are my rock.” I’ve tried “thank you Jesus, you are her healer,” but that prayer has almost felt mocking for the past week or so, so I stopped trying to fake it.

But even though I can barely pray, I know that prayer changes things. Even though my mom’s prognosis seems set and immovable, I know that prayer changes things. And so I have my friends pray for what I just can’t pray for right now, in the hope that things will change.

Thank you, friends, for praying. Please don’t stop.