Monday
Then: Anointing
If you’re a Christian, I hope you are taking full advantage of the help and strength of others in your congregation, and other Christians in your life. If you’re not a Christian, you know what? You’ll find plenty of them standing ready to help you when you are in peril at the drop of a hat. Seek it and soak up their beams. Please.
Christianity had been of no importance to me since purposely flunking confirmation classes in the Episcopal Church at 13. Even today, I am an avid proponent of Jesus Christ as perhaps the luckiest prophet of his time in his tiny part of the world. That the tradition of storytelling carried his tales to the first novelists several hundred years later and that these novels gave meaning to quests for power among some peoples is merely historical happenstance.
Yet, while this is what I believe about Christianity, I grant that I could be wrong, and that Christians really are the chosen ones to know the only true path to the unknown.
The power of prayer, as practiced by Christians (and other peoples throughout the globe) is another matter entirely.
In recent years before my diagnosis, I’d noticed that some of my best friends and favorite people were embracing various Christian faiths and activities with more vigor. My friend Smith McClure really got serious and active after having the stroke of luck to have his lung cancer discovered by accident, then surgery six weeks later, followed by a good outcome. Smith is firm in his convictions that prayer to Jesus Christ, by himself and others, led to this outcome.
Pat Weas, a colleague even when he was a young PR guy in Milwaukee, then a friend and booster of my various start-ups while he was rising in the ad agency world, never talked much about his faith, but I knew it was strong. Steve Becker, one of the gurus of Twin Cities advertising, and a former colleague of Pat’s, liked to talk about his faith and activities such as his prayer group that helped people who were sick.
While noshing with each of these chaps they all made the offer to pray with me. So, the yenta in me said: Hey, why not a group session? Smitty volunteered a conference room at his downtown office, and the date was set a week before surgery.. Pat invited a friend who’d been through my upcoming surgery, but he couldn’t make it. I invited another friend, Jim Frey, who also worked downtown, and we gathered as if we were going to have a business meeting. We spent a half hour with each of these gents telling stories about their faith, such as Steve talking about miracles and successes from his prayer group. Then Steve, said: “Let’s pray with you Kim. I brought some oil to anoint you, and you simply sit back in your chair.”
Steve drew a cross of oil on my forehead and he and the three others gathered round and placed their hands on me. I closed my eyes and leaned back in the chair.
Then they chanted. And within a minute they hit an amazing vibe. Only Pat and Steve had done this type of praying together before. But it was incredible to hear these guys imploring Jesus to work miracles on me. One would start a plea, and another would finish it, or pick up its theme and go to new places in their groove. Improv Praying. How cool? Me? I felt it. The calm. The energy of their caring, faith and conviction through their hands on me. It made a difference in my outcome. No doubt. ¶ 1:38 PM
Christianity had been of no importance to me since purposely flunking confirmation classes in the Episcopal Church at 13. Even today, I am an avid proponent of Jesus Christ as perhaps the luckiest prophet of his time in his tiny part of the world. That the tradition of storytelling carried his tales to the first novelists several hundred years later and that these novels gave meaning to quests for power among some peoples is merely historical happenstance.
Yet, while this is what I believe about Christianity, I grant that I could be wrong, and that Christians really are the chosen ones to know the only true path to the unknown.
The power of prayer, as practiced by Christians (and other peoples throughout the globe) is another matter entirely.
In recent years before my diagnosis, I’d noticed that some of my best friends and favorite people were embracing various Christian faiths and activities with more vigor. My friend Smith McClure really got serious and active after having the stroke of luck to have his lung cancer discovered by accident, then surgery six weeks later, followed by a good outcome. Smith is firm in his convictions that prayer to Jesus Christ, by himself and others, led to this outcome.
Pat Weas, a colleague even when he was a young PR guy in Milwaukee, then a friend and booster of my various start-ups while he was rising in the ad agency world, never talked much about his faith, but I knew it was strong. Steve Becker, one of the gurus of Twin Cities advertising, and a former colleague of Pat’s, liked to talk about his faith and activities such as his prayer group that helped people who were sick.
While noshing with each of these chaps they all made the offer to pray with me. So, the yenta in me said: Hey, why not a group session? Smitty volunteered a conference room at his downtown office, and the date was set a week before surgery.. Pat invited a friend who’d been through my upcoming surgery, but he couldn’t make it. I invited another friend, Jim Frey, who also worked downtown, and we gathered as if we were going to have a business meeting. We spent a half hour with each of these gents telling stories about their faith, such as Steve talking about miracles and successes from his prayer group. Then Steve, said: “Let’s pray with you Kim. I brought some oil to anoint you, and you simply sit back in your chair.”
Steve drew a cross of oil on my forehead and he and the three others gathered round and placed their hands on me. I closed my eyes and leaned back in the chair.
Then they chanted. And within a minute they hit an amazing vibe. Only Pat and Steve had done this type of praying together before. But it was incredible to hear these guys imploring Jesus to work miracles on me. One would start a plea, and another would finish it, or pick up its theme and go to new places in their groove. Improv Praying. How cool? Me? I felt it. The calm. The energy of their caring, faith and conviction through their hands on me. It made a difference in my outcome. No doubt. ¶ 1:38 PM
