oldman4251

A man who had been on my prayer list for a long time died this morning.

He was the father of a high school friend. Just so you understand how close we were, I don’t think I would have known who he was if I met him apart from his son.

I don’t remember when I started my prayer list, but he was one of the first additions, so I had been praying for him at least 6 months and maybe 8 or 9 months.

I pray short prayers. Not because Jesus made fun of people who prayed long prayers (Matthew 6:7), but because getting to the point seems like the right thing to do most of the time.

Many days, my prayer was, “Lord, please show him your kindness.” I had more to say occasionally, but not a lot because I didn’t get updates very often and I figured God knew what he needed better than I did. Still, I figure that over the past 6 months I spent at least 90 minutes praying for him.

I figure 90 minutes based upon praying 30 seconds per day for the past 180 days. I am sure that I spent less than 30 seconds some days, but there were other days when I had trouble getting to the point and prayed as long as 5 minutes.

I make my living as an analyst, so crunching numbers to develop estimates is normal to me even if it seems strange to you that I would calculate how much prayer time I had devoted to one man.

I wondered how much time I spent praying for this one man after I tried to calculate how much time I had spent talking with him over the more than 40 years I had a connection to him. I believe I shared a meal with him on two occasions, but I’m guessing I spent only 10 or 15 minutes talking with him directly.

I didn’t pray for him because I felt close to him. I didn’t pray for him because I felt close to his son. I prayed for him because he was a part of my life and he was dying.

Praying for him made me a better person. Praying for him made me more open and available to old men I met walking in the park, shopping in the grocery store, and walking by my house. Come to think of it, I’ve spent more time talking with an old man I met walking in my neighborhood over the past 6 months than I ever spent talking to the father of my friend. I think the reason I kept making time to talk with the old man in my neighborhood was because you don’t pray for one old man who is dying in another city and hurry by another old man who is standing right in front of you.

I hope my prayers did my friend’s father some good. I know they did me some good. And the old man who lives down the street from me has benefited too.