heal the world... time for some cheese

ok, so i am blogging on prayer. and it may get cheesy. bear with me, or bail now.

my dad is getting ready for another major surgery this week. it is his second in six months. i live thousands of miles away, and can feel very isolated at times like this.

i feel anything but isolated now.

this time around, i opened myself up more to my communities in california. i had to to survive this (and not just want to move home). i have been overwhelmed by the response and the prayers i have received. people all over PSR have given me their thoughts, prayers, or blessings in many different ways. i have gotten unexpected emails. someone has a candle lit for my dad through the day of the surgery. people have asked for his name over and over again.

i do not have a solid theology of prayer. i understand God as accessible and always hear, and prayer as a way to reach for God, but i have always struggled with how i should reach toward God, mostly because of that troubling question, what happens when prayers are not fulfilled? what does it mean when our prayers are not answered?

this is one of the first times in my life where i have felt a part of a large network of prayer, and if nothing else, it has changed me. the presence of prayer has shown me that i am not alone. that though i am far, though there is nothing i can do to change what happens in his surgery, and though i cannot be with m family until two weeks after the surgery, i am not alone. i will be able to deal with what comes as it may because of this ever-expanding network i am learning to understand as the kingdom of God.

i know that a company of angels all across the country will be with my dad, my family and i on monday.

great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto to me.