What Then Is This Child Going To Be?: Riding the Cushion (David Kilpatrick)

For the next three evenings. all the entries will be the work of David Kilpatrick. David and I taught together at the first teaching stop for both of us in Dasher, Georgia at Georgia Christian School. David and his wife, Carolyn, are a wonderful Christian couple and terrific parents. His topic tonight centers around receiving the request from me!

When Steve sent the note asking me for contributions to his blog this summer, it may have been the first time the reply came back asking for his prayers. When my wife read the email, I was getting ready to undergo heart bypass surgery. She told Steve she would pass the message along, and asked him to pray. Steve then passed the word along to others who knew us both from our days of teaching together in Georgia. Meanwhile, the word was going around to other places as well, and by the time the surgical team came to get me (not the way I recommend spending Father’s Day, by the way), my wife had a waiting room full of company, several people from church had come by to pray with me, and word was coming in from all over that my name was being lifted up to the Father. It was nice to know so many people cared.

What really was amazing about the whole thing, though, was how calm I felt. Here I was, facing major surgery, and I felt completely relaxed. It was as if I was carefully packed, like a piece of fine china, surrounded on all sides by a cushion of protection. I felt the power of prayer all around me. It was a great ride.

In James 5:13-20, the Lord’s brother writes about the power of prayer. I have used that passage as motivation to pray for others, and for myself, many times in the past, but it has never struck home quite like it did while I was in the hospital and knew that a lot of righteous people had me in their prayers.

Sometimes it is easy, when life is busy, to slack off in our prayers, and become complacent. Hopefully, never again will that happen to me, because I have felt the comfort of the cushion and realize how wonderful it is.