I'm praying again

I'm praying again.

It's been a while since I've really prayed. I've been operating on auto-pilot faith. It seems I go through phases like this.

Sometimes I get all caught up in the theological debate about prayer. You know in one corner stands if-God's-will-is-going-to-be-done-anyway-what-is-prayer-for VS it's heavy weight opponent the-prayer-of-a-righteous-man-is-powerful-and-effective. It's a good battle between those two.

Theology is not why I stopped praying though.  Just life is.

And theology is not why I started again either. Actually life is again, just not my own.

For the past week or so I've been talking with God and pleading for the life of Dr. Kent Brantly. I'm sure you've heard of him.

You know I usually get all judge-y about people who are very distantly involved in a big media situation and yet try to attach themselves to the drama and attention. Which is gonna make my next 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon connection seem super hypocritical.

Truth be told: I don't really know Kent. I found out his wife's cousin goes to my church. And my sister's college roommate is a close child-hood friend of his.  I know that sounds made up. He and I went to the same small undergrad university and ran in similar circles, but Kent was younger than I.

I CAN vouch for his older brother Chad. When he sings he sounds just like Collin Raye, which I am a fan of, but if that's not your thing just believe me when I say that Chad is a really solid guy. Both in character and height. The guy is huge! My real tie is to Chad's wife Elisa, who is basically one of the funniest people I've ever met. We were chemistry lab martyrs together. I say martyrs because while all the Elementary Ed majors had finished classes for the day and were back lounging at the dorms belting out "I'll be there for you" along to the Friends theme song,  Elisa and I were still suffering through 3 hours of Chem lab... three looooooong hours every week that somehow only counted as 1 hour of college credit.  I still don't get that.

Elisa was always one for a good joke.  One time in lab, we mixed up some weird concoction that looked kinda orange and flaky, but was also oily and chunky at the same time.  I distinctly remember her holding the test tube high in the air to show our friend Dan and saying aloud, "Christina, this looks exactly like that thing on your back." Still cracks me up.

I haven't seen Elisa since our ACU 10 year reunion. She is a Urologist now. Her husband Chad is a dentist. And as all the world knows, Kent is a doctor. (Bunch of morons in that family tree) It has been over three years since she and I have laughed together in person, but when I think of her I smile every single time.  Because I can picture her dimples and her shenanigans. I know Elisa Knox Brantly.

Today the news reports came out that Kent has been safely evacuated from Liberia and is now quarantined at Emory hospital in Atlanta.  I read some of the twitter posts and comments from all the online reports. There are a lot of scared people out there cursing the government for "bringing Ebola to the United States." I shouldn't have been, but I was baffled by the negative response.

For the past week every time I open Facebook someone from ACU has posted the latest update. My heart sinks when I read words like "grave" or "took a turn for the worse overnight." Just like my husband penned, I don't want Kent to die. And that's why there are thousands of us praying for him. Watching the video footage today of him walking on American soil from the ambulance to the hospital- and knowing that he will get to see his wife again- makes it seem like our "prayers are working." Whatever that means theologically.

I truly do not believe that our government officials brought ebola to America. They didn't. They brought Kent back.

He is not a disease. He is a person. He is a son, a brother, a husband, a father.

I'm starting to think that the reason we all hang on to our loose ties to a story is because it gives us a sense of connectedness and camaraderie in this big and sometimes lonely world. Haven't you ever been in a conversation where a friend is lamenting of a recent tragedy in their life- a divorce, a death, or an illness- and immediately those listening chime in with a "that happened to me when I was little, or yeah my grandma died of cancer too." We are all just looking to connect. Kent could easily be anyone's cousin, co-worker, or chem lab partner's brother-in-law. Because we are all just people. We are all the same.

Kent is one of us.

 Just like you- just like me.

I think I really do know him after all. I think you do too.

And I'm praying again. Please join me.