That still, small voice

September 28, 2006

By Vincent Crunk

I believe in prayer. I don’t understand prayer, but I believe it is effective. I’m not an ascetic or mystical, but I spend time in prayer throughout the day. Not at any specific time, although taking my morning shower is usually one of those times.

I also pray out loud. This can be embarrassing when I catch myself walking down the street with my mouth moving and wonder what passers-by are thinking. But something about hearing my own words helps me pray.

Recently I was praying in the shower, out loud again, for my usual suspects (a short list of people with very specific needs for whom I manage to pray almost every day) when I stumbled over a name and a different name came out.

Literally.

My first instinct was to correct myself and move on, but instead of correcting myself I stopped and prayed for the name I had just spoken audibly. I didn’t know what to pray. I hadn’t spoken to this person in a couple of years. We used to work together, but he moved away and our communications at best have been an annual e-mail or two and perhaps a Christmas card.

So I prayed one of those generic prayers for him, a sort of “God bless John Doe and help him with only-You-know-what.”

A couple of hours later I was at work and discovered an e-mail a co-worker had sent me the night before. It contained a link to a Web site. I clicked on the link and up popped an Internet listing for a company run by, you guessed it, the friend I had prayed for earlier.

I guess I was not feeling very spiritual at this point. How ironic, I thought, then dashed off a quick e-mail to my friend to tell him I had prayed for him. Then I pretty quickly forgot about it.

Until my phone rang a few hours later.

I have a little caller ID screen, so I looked at the number, didn’t recognize the area code, wondered who it could be, picked up the phone and said hello.

“Hi, this is (insert friend’s name here).”

Then he dropped the bombshell. He and his wife were getting a divorce after 20-some years of struggling marriage.

My mind started racing. He said that, between meeting with his pastor and finding out someone far off was praying for him, maybe he needed to rethink what he was doing before making things final and irreversible. He had planned to visit his attorney later in the day. He would not make that visit.

When we finished our phone call I had to close my office door to gather my composure. Then I had to call my wife and try to explain, “You won’t believe what just happened to me.”

I hope somebody reading this who may struggle daily to depend on and trust in God, can glean some help from my simple experience. Maybe this kind of stuff happens to you all the time. Maybe never. For me it is a once-in-awhile thing. But when it does — wow!

God can talk to me in the shower anytime. The line is open.

Vincent Crunk works for the city of Springfield, Mo., in the Public Information Department and attends Praise Assembly of God. (Billy Burris, Pastor.)