Hi Everyone!
When was the last time you prayed for someone you don't like, don't agree with, or don't even know?
After spending some time reading the threads here, I was thinking about the fact that one of our biggest challenges as Christians is to pray for others even when we have negative feelings about the person or situation involved. This is one of my toughest personal faults--I often just get mad and forget to try to empathize with someone I disagree with and pray for them.
My biggest influence in this area, however, was a beautiful mentor I had several years ago who was like a mom, aunt, and big sister rolled into one. I was having dinner at her house one night and for some reason, we started talking about current pop stars. To my surprise, my mentor said, very passionately, "Oh, I know Britney Spears is in the news all the time right now for all the wrong reasons, but my heart just cries out for her and when I see her or hear her name, I pray for her..."
This was a major catalyst that really changed the game for me, and now I too pray for celebrities and famous people regularly, especially those who have lost a parent (such as Madonna, Bobbi Kristina Brown, and Paris Jackson.) In a very tiny way, I can relate just a little bit to what famous people might feel.
I grew up in a relatively small area in which a certain close relative of mine was well-known (for positive reasons, thankfully) and I was ALWAYS associated with that person. At church groups, people didn't acknowledge me, but rather, my association with this person. They'd ask a question about "me", and then say, "Oh, I know about you, you're related to so-and-so..." In fact, I was once shopping at a flea market IN ANOTHER STATE and someone came up to me and said, "Aren't you so-and-so's (relative)?" ARGH!!!! I HATED it and to this day, I always choose to go to a different church that is not associated with any of my family members in anyway. Why? Because I want my OWN identity, and I want people to get to know ME for who I am, not who they put me together with or for what they assume without knowing a thing about the situation. I am NOTHING like the person I am always associated with (which might be for the worse, because this person, as I said, is known for very positive things!) But that's ok. What's important is that I can only be me, and not someone else.
At the same time, I sometimes feel as if my family is the only shelter I have from all the stupidity, so I can't imagine what it must be like for people to lose their foundations so early in life, and it cuts me to the heart--not just for celebrities, of course, but for anyone who has lost someone close, because money, even if they have it, CANNNOT replace people. I don't know of anyone in this world who wouldn't give all they have to have a beloved person they have lost back with them, even for just one day.
I don't do so well in other situations, however. The person who vehemently disagrees with something I'm passionate about? ("Adoption? Why would anyone do that if they can have kids? I could never love a child who wasn't 'my own.'") The drunk driver who just swerved across traffic and endangered all the rest of us on the road? The person at church who just judged my faith and said I was less of a Christian, or not even really saved? Or the person who made a racial slur against me, my friends, or my friend's kids who are mixed? (This is one of my biggest pet peeves, EVER. DO NOT make a racial slur at someone, most especially a child, in front of me or ask them, "What are you?", because I've had plenty of people ask me that in my lifetime. It truly brings out the worst in me.)
Yup, I have MUCH harder time when it gets personal.
I am also guilty of having my "prayers" come out as backhanded curses "in disguise" (as if I could fool God, right?) My most frequent example in this category are people who in my area who have no problems passing multiple vehicles in a row, even with oncoming traffic. My "prayers" for them always come out as something like, "Lord, please bless that person with better time management skills so they don't have to rush and endanger the lives of everyone else!"
But I've been asking God for help and trying...
And so the last time I prayed for someone I didn't like was this morning. I hope God will continue to give me to grace to keep doing so on a regular basis.
What about the rest of you?
