When some one you love is sick . . .

I have a very close friend who is trying desperately to tolerate the chemo that is necessary for her pancreatic cancer.  She came to visit me for a few days and was pretty sick while she was here.  She is back up in Minnesota and continues to be sick.  I chose this for a topic today because I believe in the power of prayer and I’d like to ask that all of you who happen to be reading this to pray for Joy.  Further, I ask you to pass this request on to your friends too.  I’d appreciate this very much.  A world-wide prayer chain would be pretty formidable.

Her name is so fitting, or was, until she got cancer.  She always had a smile and a great sense of humor.  Unfortunately, there’s not a lot to smile about right now.  She retired from her job a year ago in December and was diagnosed with cancer in January, less than a month later.  She has gone through chemo twice and radiation too.  But right now, at this very moment, she is quite ill.  What this means only God knows for sure but prayers can work miracles.  I think that prayer chain I mentioned could be the solution.  At the very least, she’d be fully at peace and that’s the next best thing.

Illness is such a mysterious things.  Some say the more we focus on it, the more it’s exacerbated.  And yet, when you feel ill all over, like  Joy, it’s hard to put your thoughts any where else.  Prayer has been scientifically proven to effect the outcome of people’s illnesses.  I remember reading about a miraculous experiment that was done by Dr. Larry Dossey, an Internist who is internationally known, a few years ago.  He assigned a group of people to anonymously pray for some of his patients who were recovering from surgery.  Another group of patients were simply receiving the best care the hospital could give.  Not surprisingly to him, those who had been prayed for recovered more quickly.  He has a fascinating web site.  Check it out if interested.

Any way, at the very least, prayer allows us to feel like we are doing some thing when a loved one is ill.  And when we let them know we are holding them in our prayers,  they feel a special sense of comfort and closeness too.  Comforting others is a worthy undertaking every day of our lives, and we don’t have to comfort only the ill. Any one who crosses our path is deserving of an extension of comfort.  Try this and see how changed you feel inside.

I love how it has changed me.