Prayer and Works I

When I stop working with the homeless, I forget that the world is wounded in a way that I can help heal.  When I stop reading Scripture, I forget that I am wounded in a way that God can help heal.  I wrote this to a friend, Dave Nichols, who in his retirement continues to serve much as he did in his “working” life as a Baptist Minister, writing and serving.  Every few days I receive from him the latest in his reflections on Scripture.  Often my busyness finds me giving them a cursory look and filing them in my “ought to read” file.  Yesterday by Gods grace I happened to really read what he sent, and it was so good that I dropped him a note of gratitude.  It ended with the statement above, which struck me with their elegance.

Prayer and “works” – the way of a person of faith.  Last month when our nephew died suddenly, one of our daughters blessed us with a fruitful reflection.  She was so struck by the goodness and perseverance of our nephew’s parents, in light of their having lost both of their adult children in two years.  She said that all of our lives ride on two rails, joy and tragedy, and the path of our lives curves to shift our weight onto one or the other, but we are always in contact with both.  We keep from overturning by accepting the support of both rails.  Yesterday my note to Dave seems to have pointed out to me two such rails on which the person of faith moves forward without falling over.  I’ll take this for a ride tomorrow.