Monday, February 13, 2017
535 - Directional Stability
Spirituality
Column No. 535
February 14, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
February 14, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Directional Stability
By
Bob Walters
“Remember that the
‘power’ in our prayer rests on the One who hears it and not the one who speaks
it.” – Joyce Samples, daily devotional text message, 2-11-17
Last year
dear friend from church Joyce Samples started sending out a daily text message
briefly reflecting on her daily devotions and prayer.
Petrified
she was “bothering” people, Joyce checked and double checked with recipients
inviting them off the list. You will not
find a bolder witness for Jesus Christ than Joyce Samples but, you know, she’d
be mortified if she thought she was pestering her friends. And please know Joyce has lots of friends.
Joyce has
been married to wonderful Christian pastor John Samples for 66 years, and John
has served at East 91st Street Christian Church here in Indianapolis since the
late 1990s as an associate pastor, then the Senior Ministries pastor (for us
older folks) and now as one of the busiest “retired” pastors you’ve ever seen.
He’s a
great friend, too. John married my wife
Pam and me back in 2009.
Five years
ago today, Valentine’s Day 2012, this column was about John and Joyce – Estes
was her maiden name – and Joyce’s six other siblings all of whom had been
married at that point for 50 years or more. That’s seven Estes family brothers
and sisters who celebrated Golden wedding anniversaries. Jay Leno invited the entire surviving Estes
clan to be on the Tonight Show, but several of them didn’t/don’t fly.
It’s the
best Valentine’s Day story I know.
But let’s
get back to Joyce’s daily text messages.
In general, any writer knows it’s far more difficult to write “short”
than to write until you’re done. I
worked in and around sports media for 30 years and the hardest working reporter
in the press box was the one from USA Today who had to tell the whole story in
six or seven paragraphs. I’m also reminded of Will Rogers, the pithy, funny
cultural and political commentator from the 1920s and 30s who worked hours each
day coming up with topical one-liners that ran in most of the nation’s
newspapers. For example: "If you ever
injected truth into politics you’d have no politics.”
So Joyce’s
ability to say a lot in a very few words puts her in rare company. And as to the specific sentiment expressed
above, it made me think of this:
I have a
sensitive ear for the prayers of people who are praying but who I am not
convinced have any idea to whom or what they are praying. I’ve heard performers, athletes – all kinds
of people, really – “pray” calling on God or beseeching the Lord for this favor
or that success and there is nothing in the prayer for God. It’s all for “me.”
A “tell,” I think, is whether they invoke
Jesus in their prayer, directing the focus and power onto a divine person; stable,
holy, solid, other and beyond themselves.
Yes, Jesus
loves me, but God’s glory is the point.
We need Jesus for that.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that his in-laws Richard and Etta Erdman of Honor, Michigan,
have been married 67 years this May. Happy
Valentine’s Day! Also, feel free to pester
Joyce Samples about adding you to her daily texting list. BTW - to see that column from 2012, here's the link: CommonChristianity #275 - Love, Endurance, and Prayer