So when a tragedy strikes, people feel helpless.
It’s something I get to see a little too often as a pastor. There are times I feel completely useless praying for a patient’s healing in the hospital, when all indications are they are going to pass away.
I visited a pastor in the hospital just a few weeks ago. His 7 year old son was a healthy active boy until late this past summer. As I sat by the boy’s bed where he now lays unresponsive and moaning, the dad tells me how something in the boy’s body began attacking his brain. Out of nowhere. With no obvious cause.
Now this little boy who was playing ball can’t even tell his dad what hurts. That father now has him back home as they pray for a miracle but also wait for what the doctors say is the inevitable.
I’ll be honest. I had no idea what to say, much less what to pray. But praying is what I’ve been doing ever since I left that hospital room, and each time I see the father’s updates on Facebook.
We have a dear family friend right now that’s in the hospital and the diagnosis is so bad, it looks like she’s probably not going to recover. Sure, God can intervene, and sometimes does. But unfortunately (or fortunately), I’m not the one who decides when He does.
So when I’m overwhelmed and unable to fix the problem any other way, I pray. My prayers ask God to intervene, believing that He can, but I do not presume to tell Him how or when. And I trust it with Him, knowing that the answer to my prayer for my friend may indeed come back as “no”.
And when something horrible happens on a national scale, people feel just as helpless.
They wonder what can be done and look for solutions. Sometimes we look for someone to blame.
One group sincerely believes they know a simple solution. That solution just happens to have a political party attached to it.
Another group sincerely believes that’s not the answer at all, that the real issue is mental health, or society, or just plain old fashioned evil in the world. So they bow their heads and go to the one person they believe can do something about it.
And when they see someone affected by that tragedy, they offer their thoughts and prayers. Because that’s all they know to do that will make any difference.
Here’s where the problem starts. The first group gets mad, because they believe it is obvious to any thinking person that their answer would fix the problem. They believe the people bowing their heads are just floating a few niceties in leu of actually taking action. This infuriates the first group, so they say things like,
“You can keep your hypocritical thoughts and prayers to yourself! Shame on you for not demanding that we all… (insert the name of your favorite political panacea)!”
What’s happened here is group one sets up their solution to the problem as “the one and only solution”, and then shames anyone who dares not agree. And these purists are pretty self-righteous about it, too. Their judgmentalism could make any old school “church lady” proud.
I know lots of the T&P people personally, and many are really kind folks. They truly don’t know what to do, but they believe God does. So instead of grandstanding and demanding your compliance, they pray, humbly and hopefully.
Sure, I’ve been frustrated at people who use prayer as a place to hide from responsible action. Trust me, as a pastor I’ve watched quite a few good people do nothing in the face of evil and selfishness. But this is not that.
Just a piece of advice, but you might want to be nice to some of us thoughts-and-prayers folks. God forbid that one day the doctor gives you those test results you were hoping never to hear. Or you get that call about your kids in the middle of the night. Or some other overwhelming situation overtakes you that you feel powerless to face alone.
It’s about that time you might just want a few of those prayers for yourself. And I’ll bet you won’t be rushing then to remind me how ineffective #thoughtsandprayers are.
Know that when I pray for you, I’m doing the most powerful, effective thing I know how to do.
So just in case, here are my thoughts and prayers for you that God protects you from any of those tragedies I mentioned. That’s the very best I’ve got.
You’re welcome.
