Prayers of Blessings… [and tears]

Anybody who knows me at all, knows I’m a crier. As my family will attest, one risen lump in my throat and it’s ‘water works’ city. My grandmother, Nellie, was a crier. So much so, her crying became folly for a long-standing, ‘inside’ family joke… 

Around the late seventies, at the end of a very long supplication of grace over the soon to be served Christmas dinner [which, of course, included grandma crying], an older cousin chimed-in retorting a final “and God bless the truck drivers! Amen!” 

Finally, we could eat!! What a golden memory etched forever in my mind. One thing for sure, every long-winded prayer since has ended with the catch-phrase “and God bless the truck drivers. Amen.” 

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Christmas before last, as hubby and I stood in line at the Subway counter in a truck stop somewhere between Nashville and Hometown, OK, I found myself praying for all the truck drivers standing in line with us. It wasn’t until we were miles down the interstate that the irony of the moment struck me. And what was my response upon my sudden realization? The shedding of tears… In the words of Agent Hart from the rom-com, Miss Congeniality, “I really do want world peace!” And I want people to know my friend, Jesus.

Someone once asked Grandpa, a reverend in his day, “Why Grandma cried so much?” Grandpa responded, “Because she wants to save the world, and she knows she can’t.” 

The words caught my breath and I thought, I am my grandmother’s clone. I can so relate… 

Like me, you have a legacy… a story. A story, most likely, filled with chapters of joy, abundance, and love. But also, quite possibly, full of suffering, pain, and struggle. As Christ followers, our anguished hearts ought to grieve for a weary, wounded world like my Grandma Nellie weeped. In our anguish, we are to intercede fervently praying showers of blessings over a broken world. Especially, for those lost in sin. Some so far down the rabbit hole, they no longer feel their human-ness or beloved-ness. 

For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you. (2 Cor. 2:4)

When faced with bitter disappointment, endless struggles, and immense suffering, pivot to the One who is the hope of the world. None of us can save the world, but we know SOMEONE who can. Intercede in prayer anguished for a fallen, broken world. This is what genuine, God-breathed love looks like… loving humanity with a grandma’s and Father’s heart. 💕

*In the top of the photo, you’ll notice the end of a church pew inside a revival tent. Grandma and Grandpa Rayburn were trailblazers in the early Assembly of God movement and have been honored as such. And [sniff, sniff], just before hitting publish, I realized I actually own the gloves grandma Nellie is wearing in the picture above and are displayed in a shadow box full of family momentoes hanging in my office. [I’m not crying, your crying…]