At church last weekend, my mind was not much on the sermon.  We have been planning to visit our 20 year old, Naomi, in Nyack, New York over Columbus Day weekend.  We had just found out that there were no hotel rooms anywhere in the Nyack area.  We weren't sure we would be able to do the trip.

While this would normally be a mild disappointment, this time I saw it as a bigger deal.  Naomi, a senior in college, has had more than her share of challenges lately.  Nothing huge it and of itself, but she is carrying a full course load, working two jobs and doing an internship at a youth group in Spanish Harlem.  Along with this comes all the regular stuff of being 20: the ups and downs of relationships, roommates, being away from home...

Furthermore, Naomi has always been the daughter I felt the strongest need to nurture.  Was it the week I spent with her on the pediatric floor of Maine Medical after she was in a car accident at the age of two?  Was it the migraines she suffered through adolescence?  Was it the knee injury her senior year of high school that forced her to sit out two basketball games?  I don't know, but the care-giver especially comes out in me with this kid.  and now, we might not be able to be there at a time she could really use us.

So after a church service I only vaguely paid attention to, I was still worried.  Then I saw Brian.  Brian is a new believer who has come to the Lord after decades as one of the bad boys in town.  He is a drug addict and an alcoholic.  And he loves Jesus so much.

So much, in fact, that he is now sober and clean as his way of blessing his Savior.  He keeps a running count of how many Sundays he's been in church.  At last count, he has come 55 times.  He still smokes cigarettes, a fact that is very evident when he speaks to you.  And every week, he asks me to pray for him after church.  This time, when I saw him coming, I knew what I had to do.  Call it the Holy Spirit, but I knew I had to ask Brian to pray for me, too.  In one quick epiphany, I realized that, outside of my family, there may be no one in the church who sincerely loves me more than Brian.  I also realized that I'd be hard pressed to think of anyone who loves Jesus more than he does.  Who better to ask for prayer.

Never mind his simple theology.  Never mind his tobacco breath.  Never mind the crass and vulgar language that still peppers his speech.  Never mind his social awkwardness.  Who better to ask for prayer.

After I prayed for him, it was his turn.  He told me he never prayed out loud before.  He asked (several times) what he should say.  He worried that it 'might not work'.  But then he prayed.  It was simple and brief.  And it was from the bottom of his heart.  I wept.  when he saw the tears in my eyes, he was thrilled and touched.  "I did it right, didn't I, Rick?" he enthusiastically asked me several times.  "Yes, you did great," I said, and I thanked him and told him how much his prayer blessed me.  I wasn't being condescending or patronizing.  The Holy Spirit moved me to ask him for prayer because, as my brother in Christ, he was the perfect one to lovingly bring this worried daddy to God in prayer.

Tonight I called Brian to tell him that we now have two choices of where to stay when we go to Nyack in two days.  Thank you, Brian.