A prayer that I have been praying for some time is that my heart be after God's own heart and that He reveal a portion of that to me.  In the time that I have prayed this I have felt my own spirit change and some of the sharp edges have softened.  Since I reentered into the Christian faith and then followed the Call to ordained ministry God has shown me many interesting things.  Broken people have come to me and my wife and have given us great opportunities to minister in strange places, Fort Lauderdale Beach and a Bar, to name a few (these two in particular come to mind because of the interesting aspects of them and the stories are quite unbelievable if I hadn't been there I would not think they would be true either).

Well, I feel compelled to share an experience yesterday.  In the morning, as I was dropping my wife off to work at the hospital, I saw a man come out with a woman.  The man was so distraught, I could see the pain in his eyes, he looked inconsolable.  My heart went to him and instantly I was overcome with his grief.  I had my son in the van, so I had to bring him to school and thought if he was still there I would pray with him.  I dropped my son off and as I was passing the hospital a part of me thought, "Well, he wouldn't want me to intrude," and I started to drive by, but was pulled back and turned back to the hospital and pulled in.

The man was still there and I, again, was overcome by the grief in this man's heart.  I parked, walked up, and introduced myself.  I told him that I felt that I needed to pray with him is that would be alright and I asked him what was going on.  He told me that his wife was dying of cancer and her time was soon.  His grief was so overwhelming and as I prayed with him I just felt it come upon me in waves and in the prayer I called on all the promises that we find within Scripture, all the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ, I called out in praise that we are not left alone, and prayed for comfort in this time.  As I was praying I felt the love that God had for this man.  I felt the love that God has for all of His creation.  It reminded me of how he cares for us all.  I understood in some small part, how our pain and our grief feels to the Lord.  He hears it all, He knows it all, He feels it all, and He stands by us.  In our greatest times of need we are not alone.  I did not know this man, but I felt connected to this man, I felt his pain as if his wife were my own.  What would the world be like if we all felt the pain of our brothers and sisters?  Would we bear each others burdens?

Peace be to you!  Amen!