No Call Waiting

Julie Shaffer wrote No Call Waiting in July 2005.

No Call Waiting

I was curious how to pray as a child. There was a drawing in my one children’s book I looked at it. I studied it. The drawing was of a little girl on her knees, praying at the side of her bed with her head bowed, hand folded and her eyes closed. I decided that was the right way to pray. Once my family had gone to sleep, I got out of my bed and prayed just like that little girl in the drawing. And I prayed for candy each night.  I awoke the each and every morning ready for the answer to my prayers…the candy. I never received the candy.

Not only do children wonder:  “How does one pray?” Adults can ask themselves the same thing. When I was a hospital chaplain, a nurse asked me to visit a patient. She said that he had wanted to speak with me; however, he had never talked with a pastor or chaplain before. I walked into his room, and we talked.  I started to leave his room and he hesitated and then asked, “Would you teach me how to pray?”  I looked at him and explained, “I cannot teach you how to pray…there are millions of ways to pray. You can talk to God; however, you need. There’s no wrong way.”

He then asked me to offer a prayer. I offered a prayer each day we visited. I was paged on morning to this patient’s room. I could not figure out why the page. This man was not dying. I arrived to the room where I found the man fully dressed…waiting to be discharged. He asked to pray. So I began to offer a prayer. He squeezed my hand and said that he wanted to give the prayer.

God's Spirit is alongside helping us. As we heard from this morning’s reading from Romans: “If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, and keeps us present before God.”

In the Jim Carrey movie “Bruce Almighty” the scriptwriters gave God a phone number that Carrey could dial to talk with the Almighty. But instead of using the 555 prefix that movie makers and TV shows generally give phone numbers – they gave God a 776 prefix.

People who saw the movie wrote the number down and started dialing it. One lady in St. Petersburg, FL received 20 calls per hour from people who wanted to talk to God.

Wouldn’t it be easy if we could dial a number directly to God without busy signals, answering machines, and call waiting?

It was that easy for a woman, who wanted to talk with a hospital chaplain, who had a pager. Almost every Sunday morning between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m., a nurse from a hospital’s mental health ward would page me. A patient wanted to talk with the woman who’s God.

All this women wanted was someone who would listen.

Sometimes we do not pray out of gratitude. Sometimes we pray if we want something. Sometimes we pray if we want someone to listen. Sometimes we pray out of frustration. Sometimes we do not pray at all.

Then the day comes when we need to pray. We may not be sure how to pray. We may not be sure if anyone is listening.

I received a voicemail on day this past May from my mother, who lives in Indiana. My uncle Roger had a stroke at the age of 56.  My mother’s message repeated over and over, “Your Aunt Judy wants you to pray for Roger because you know how to pray and what to say.”

I telephone my Aunt many nights, and we talked and we prayed. I listened. Each time I called my Aunt my uncle’s conditioned worsened. (Explain condition and good news call.)

Dear Julie

In the rehab area of hospitaI.  I seemed to getting along ok.  They plan to release me on friday afternoon.  I am looking forward to getting out of here.  I guess that I don't rember being her tht first 5 weehs.  Judy has been telling about the tales,(Of course they are probley streacher a little).   I have been very fortination with starting to recover last Friday.  I had lost my right side.   When I woke up Saturday morning it seamed to close to normal.

I am getting a little tired sold i will quit for now.

My Aunt sent this letter out a week ago:

After 22 long days in the intensive care unit, 4 days in the neurological unit, and 11 days in the rehabilitation unit, Roger was dismissed from the hospital on Friday, June 17 and was able to return home.  The doctors call his recovery a miracle.

Miraculously after 22 days in ICU, Roger started getting better.  One by one the life support systems, gauges, and monitors were taken away.  He has all of his long-term memory and still can run the computer better than me!  He also has kept his sense of humor in tact through all of this!

We know Roger is still here on earth and has experienced this wonderful recovery only because of the grace of God. There is certainly no medical reason or explanation for his recovery.

Bless you all!

I believe that God hears every prayer and the honest cries of every person. That means God is even listening to us when we don't realize we are praying, and when our prayers take the form of cries or longings, of hopes and dreams, of joys and sorrows and groanings which cannot be uttered.

Not all of our prayers are answered. Maybe because we are praying for things we are not ready for in our lives. Or maybe we are not disciplined in our prayer life. I am not sure why some prayers are answered and some are not.

However, I am sure that each of us has a direct line to God, where there are no busy signals, no answering machines, and especially no call waiting!

Uncle Roger with Julie at the Cracker Barrel in Fort Wayne, Indiana, September 2013.