As you all know the standard greeting over here is:  ”How are you doing?”   You are supposed to say automatically: ”Thank you, I´m fine!”  That´s it.  The ceremony is over.  And you´ve done what you´re supposed to do.  Good boy!

I just can´t fit into that puppet show role, so my kind reaction would often be:  ”Thank you for asking.  My answer to your question is:  I´m rejocing in our Lord Jesus Christ!”  So wonderful and exciting to confess His wonderful name also in this simple and prosaic way.

But I´m not always walking on the clouds of intense enthusiasm. Who are by the way?  I´m familiar with sorrows also as was the apostle Paul. There are those that sometimes cause grief.  During my 90 minutes´ walk today my heart felt that spiritual paradox:  ”As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing!”  My spiritual son over here hasn´t yet shown up.  I long for him.  Something is not right, I feel.  In a situation like this you don´t shout with joy.

At the moment I´m not walking very fast.  Behind me I heard heavy footsteps, slower than mine.  I sat down on a bench for a rest.  The footsteps were those of an elderly gentleman.  He stopped at my bench and greeted me with a warm smile.  I invited him to sit down with me.  We started talking.  He (84) had just got a new hip and everything went well.  Next month he was due to be a great grandfather for the very first time.

His name is Bob, and he also mentioned that he was a Sunday school teacher for a senior class.  I asked him, ”Does that mean that you have a personal relationship to Jesus Christ?”  He smiled, “You came first!  I was going to ask you the same question!”  O, there was no doubt.  Everything suddenly went off without a hitch.  We had fellowship.  We were in the kingdom of God together.  How wonderful and uplifting!

I confided in Him about my burden, and before parting we had a wonderful time of prayer together (which by the way you may have right in the open over here in this free country).  He prayed fervently for my son in the faith.  My spirit was relieved.  I walked on with a light heart.  I realized that the Lord had sent an ”angel” in a moment of sorrows, which through the praying fellowship became a moment of consolation and joy.

We sometimes speak of an active vacation.  These have been active days as far as I`m concerned.  Active in God´s world of prayer and in the spirit of prayer.   Can you think of something more active?  I hope to learn more about that kind of life these days away from home.

For:   ”The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working”  (James 5:16).  “Saying prayers” as a mere religious ritual don´t work.

-jn-

Clovis, Ca.,April 9, 2010