Praying

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,”  - Colossians 1:9

I got up yesterday morning with music running through my head.  Not just any music.  But music performed by The Who, whom I saw in concert the night before.   Amazing concert; loud, energetic, pounding, at times visually stunning; rather amazing since the real two remaining band members are, well, pushing 70 years old. 

Then this passage gets emailed to me, and it hits me like, well not like a ton of bricks (that was The Who’s job), but like a gentle evening breeze.  The apostle Paul is reminding a small struggling church that he has been in prayer for them.  Personally.

So I ponder.  As I was out enjoying that great concert Sunday evening (not excessively enjoying it, mind you), was there someone praying for me?  During that time? 

I am reminded of an older couple that lived next door to us when I was a child growing up in Southern California.  They didn’t live there long (at least that what I seem to remember). I can’t even remember their names.  I kind of feel bad about that. But they gave me my first Bible.  And just before they moved away, they told me that they would be praying for me.  For me. Frankly, I couldn’t fathom why they would.

And so I ponder.  I became a Christian at age 23.  This morning I wonder if that was an answer to older couple’s prayer.  I wonder how much their prayers had to do with my turning to Christ as an unsettled young man.  I wonder.  Admittedly, pray is a bit of a mystery to me.  But it is something we do in obedience to our God who honors such actions.

“For this reason...” Paul writes”… since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.

Not stopped.  Can you feel the breeze?  May the prayers people have been praying for you become the music running through your head today….

And maybe later today you can mix it up with a Who song if you would like….