February 16, 2003: Not Ashamed To Pray

I hope you're not embarrassed to pray for people. By "people" I mean even total strangers, and by "pray" I mean out loud, in front of them.

A few years ago I was in the parking lot at Dominick's grocery store when I saw a troubled lady looking all over the place for something. I asked her what she was looking for, and she said she had lost her keys. She was frantic. The keys were work-related, and she was afraid she was going to lose her job. I helped her look.

I also asked her if I could pray for her. She said yes, and we stopped briefly and I prayed. I wish I could say the keys appeared suddenly after that. They didn't - I really don't know if she ever found them. But she was thankful that I stopped and prayed and helped her look.

I've had lots of opportunities to pray for strangers and near-strangers, and I find that they almost never say, "Are you crazy?" On the contrary, they tend to be appreciative. It happened again last week, when I stopped on the shoulder of Interstate 80 to provide some roadside assistance to a young man and his mother whose
car engine had caught fire. The fire was mostly out by the time I got there, and they had already called for help. There wasn't much I could do but listen to the poor woman's story and say, "Can I pray for you and your son?" She was so pleased! It made me happy I stopped and offered to pray.

Pray for people, and do not worry about whether you might come across as a religious freak. Just do it, just plunge in and offer to pray. Good will probably come of it.