A Prayer for Debbie

Dear God, 

This week, my aunt Debbie was diagnosed with cancer. I know that so many in our world have been affected by cancer and we have made great strides in fighting it. My main concern is as much for her state of mind as it is for her health. Please help her to realize her strength. Please help her to be as much of an advocate for herself as she has been for me. Please help her to realize that her determination to get better and be well is as important as any other aspect of her treatment. Please help her to find the life lesson in this situation and be grateful for it. I ask this in your name, dear God. Amen.

A Prayer for Eric

Dear God, 

Please help Eric to fight and heal after his horrible car accident on Monday night. He's already survived multiple surgeries including the one to get rid of the blood clot in his brain. Please help his broken bones to heal, his pain to ease and his fear to cease. Please help his family to continue to find the happiness in the success of his surgeries, rather than focus on the horrific after-affects of his accident. Please help him to find strength when he is weak, help him to find love when he is filled with anger, and help him to find peace when he is at odds with his circumstances. Thank you for your help, dear God, and in all the ways you have already aided Eric through this process. 

Amen.

A Prayer for Roger

Dear God, 

Please help Roger and his family who now face the reality of a large tumor in his sinus cavity. Please give them strength and faith that you will guide them through this storm. We know that, in life, we face hardships, but that these are meant as lessons to teach us things about ourselves and about the journey of our souls. Help Roger and his family to know that your love is not the light at the end of the tunnel, but the grace itself that gets us to the end of the tunnel. Please work in concert with Roger's doctors to create the end result that is the to the greatest and highest good of all those involved. Thank you, dear God, for your guidance, your unconditional love and your healing grace. Amen.

A Prayer for the Best Outcome

Please pray for this wonderful person who submitted this prayer to us. Please pray for clarity, for a feeling of purpose, for understanding and for happiness. I'm sure many, many of us have felt this way at one time or another and understand and empathize with this person. Please aid this reader with you prayers.

I recently had an incident that showed me how life can change in the blink of an eye.  I am being asked to make a decision I don't know how to make, except to pray for the best possible outcome.  I feel like my life has been saved several times yet feel I have no useful gifts or purpose.  I've been feeling very lost, and pray that He show me clearly what His plan is for me right now, and how to use the gifts He has given me.  

-A. Starkes

Ava and Nikos

Please offer prayers for Ava and Nikos.  They are brother and sister twins who entered the world at 24 weeks. They are currently in the Neonatal Unit and need our prayers.

**Update** - Ava has finally come home, weighing around 5lbs. Nikos is still in the hospital and both still need our prayers. Thank you for your continued thoughts, prayers and intentions for these two young miracles.

Please pray for Ava and Nikos. If you have trouble finding your own words, 

please feel free to use the prayer below.

Dear God,

You chose to give this world two beautiful babies who were born very early on. They are now in the care of dedicated nurses and doctors, but their true healing can come only through you.

Please wrap your protective arms around these precious children and bestow your healing blessings on them that they may grow and develop into healthy young children and glorify you in this world.

Please hear my prayer and give Ava and Nikos' family strength to bear this challenge you have sent their way. We ask it in your name...Amen.

My Walk of Darkness and Light

 Today's article was written by a friend, Jared. I asked Jared to share his story because I feel there are many people out there who deal with depression and feel removed and disconnected from any sense of belonging and of love. It can be easy, when things don't go as we planned, to feel that God isn't with us or has forgotten us. But remember, when things don't go as we planned, it is because there is something far greater in store for us. This is Jared's story of growing up, battling depression and finding solace in his faith.

My Walk of Darkness and Light

There can be many things that lead us to stray from the path of God. For me, I never believed it was possible to stray off that path until a friend of mine pulled me off the edge of a balcony just before I was planning to jump. I grew up probably the way most people do. I had a great set of parents that got me involved in church at a young age. They would take us to church every week and we would sit in our Sunday school class then play in the nursery or attend children’s church. Sure, I got picked on a lot when I was young but I always seemed to bounce back. I was the scrawny kid that knew better than to be mean back to people. I had some rough times physically and emotionally. There were fist fights and emotional bullying. Again, I seemed to keep it together because of my faith. I had a good support system in my parents and my church family to keep myself from letting the darkness out. As I got older, I was in the church plays and very involved with the youth group. My friends became my support system and things seemed to be going in a great direction in high school. Then I went to college.

 I was a decent athlete and a half decent student. I looked more at college as a way to continue my sports career more so than I did a chance to get a great education. Seeing as how I put more emphasis on my sport than my studies you can imagine how devastated I was to have injured myself in a pre-season contest. This injury was the main turning point in my walk away from God. We had our battles in the past, but this was different. This was just an up and walk away without even knowing it. This injury lasted with me for my entire collegiate career. Not living up to what I knew my potential to be lead to allowing myself to start drinking. This also then led to promiscuity with females on campus. I started to feel much like Solomon must have. I was running the exact opposite direction from what I believed in and what I knew I was supposed to be doing.

After I graduate college, I was left with what felt like nothing. Sure, I received my degree and ended up doing pretty well in both school and sports. However, without the structure of both of those things I quickly slid even further from God. Living with a friend of mine, I started doing what most of us probably did after college. I would work and I would play, and I played hard. Every weekend was like a continuation of college. We drank and we partied. However, I was no longer an athlete so I let myself party and drink even more. There were no coaches to report to, or teammates to let down. During this stage of my life I started to really experience depression. If I wasn’t drinking myself into complete drunkenness, I was alone in my room. I would seclude myself from the rest of the world.

This is where my friend comes in. In fact, he came in three times. On three separate occasions, he had the perfect timing. In a span of about 6 weeks he had saved my life three times. The third time is when he had enough. He called my parents. They did not know what to do. My parents tried very hard to balance helping me without me shutting them out. I started to get away from the alcohol but the promiscuity stuck around. Three years and three jobs later I found myself finally starting to get it. I had lost two of those jobs because of the bad choices I had made. The turn-around started when I met a very special girl.

This girl started to challenge me in a way I have never been challenged before. She made me want to show off how much I knew about God and the Word. We started dating and she made it very clear that church was something that would be a part of our relationship. We went to church fairly casually up until we got married. At this point, we started attending more regularly and I really started to pay attention. Not a coincidence at all, but my life started to get better. Things started working for me instead of against me. I opened myself back up to a Lord and Savior that I hadn’t known in so very long. I would get emotional in church because I realized that he let me back in with no questions asked.

Over the last year I started attending a men’s group and a young couple’s small group. Both of these extra activities have allowed me to further grow my knowledge and share my faith. I can proudly say that it has been over two years since I thought about seriously hurting myself. That dark feeling has been taken away from me. God most truly is the light of the world. I believe that he placed my wife in my life to show me the way back from darkness. I believe that the power of prayer and fellowship can really heal broken hearts and broken spirits. Now more than ever I am not afraid to speak about my bleak past. I made a lot of mistakes and I hurt a lot of people, but God has shown me that by facing those events I can be made whole again. He has made me strong so I can be a disciple and help those that are not strong.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.”
~Proverbs 3:5-8

Hero

Kelly Jones (@KellySue_Jones) was asked to guest-write an article about a friend of hers after she submitted a prayer one day to our blog about him. It was evident to us from the start that Kelly's friendship was one of admiration, love and inspiration. And in this day when some of us struggle to get through the normal routine of our day, sometimes its a great thing to realize how blessed you are and how far you are capable of going as a human being. This is Kelly's story about her friend, Jeff...

Hero

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself

~ Joseph Campbell

The dictionary defines a hero as a myriad of things. These things mostly have to do with mythological and legendary archetypes, leaving us with visions of dragon slaying and saving the world from the ever ensuing darkness, only to be victorious in their quest for light. Yet one definition stands out for me on the fourth line of explanation in the dictionary: An object of extreme admiration or devotion.
We all have our own definition of what a Hero is.

Part of my definition goes something like this:

he·ro - noun \ˈhir-(ˌ)ō\ 1.  a: My Father. A WWII veteran, a devoted family man and a loving soul. A man who loved and cared for his ailing wife in their home until the day she died, and who was in love with her until the day he died. 

b: My best friend Jeff. The heir of my extreme admiration.

Growing up, it was obvious to those around him that Jeff had a talent for sports. But since the age of 6 he had battled illness after illness.  In high school he played soccer and excelled in baseball. But due to his health he eventually had to give up his dream of being a professional athlete.  
 

At the age of 18, he was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, a disease of the colon that has characteristics of open sores lining the intestine and colon causing constant diarrhea and blood.  As his health issues progressed into a daily battle, He pursued his education at George Mason University and was awarded a national scholarship in broadcasting. Landing a job with NBC, it seemed he was able to now take his passion for sports and utilize them in broadcasting, a fulfilling career. Yet this dream would be challenged as well. Almost ten years later, and with continuous fatigue, he was hospitalized. Pounded with immunosuppressants and no food for 30 days, he went from 165 lbs to 115 lbs. The treatment failed, and Jeff had to undergo the 12 hour surgery to remove his colon if he were to survive.
 

While recovering from the removal of his colon and part of his intestines, as well as being given a colostomy bag, he was not getting better. He tells the story of how a priest would come to the hospital floor once a week to visit and give rites. Then, he started coming to Jeff’s room once a day. He laughs, saying “I thought maybe he just liked me”! Yet shortly after, Jeff lay alone is his hospital bed one night. He started to have a feeling that something was desperately wrong with his body. He started to get cold and as he put his hand over his heart, he could barely feel it beating. At this point, he was so weak he was not able to call out to a nurse and simply closed his eyes. When he opened them again, there were, what he describes as three transparent beings of light at the foot of his bed. One by one, they touched him saying, “It is not your time.”  Communicating with him through feelings,   their voices floated through his head without them speaking. As they continued to communicate, he looks back almost expecting them to reveal the mystery of life or a profound message from God. Instead, the next thing he remembers hearing was, “You will be going to Hollywood!” Jeff still laughs about that, pointing out that spirit does have a sense of humor!  Trying to make sense of what was occurring, more messages floated into his knowingness and he closed his eyes again.  
 

As he “awoke”, Doctors were standing over him. Electromagnetic monitors connected to his bare chest were telling the story of what had happened. He had experienced an electro cardio crash. His heart had stopped beating.
 

A few days later, he was given a book by his friend Barry. With the recent events and Jeff’s search for understanding, it seemed like the perfect moment for the book, The Celestine Prophecy. At this time Jeff was unaware of the common thread of this type of spirituality. Growing up as a devout Catholic, his spirit sought more than the average acceptance of the “Word”. Jeff wanted to know MORE.  
Upon discovering the metaphysical section at Barns and Noble he proceeded to simply run his arm along the entire top shelf of the spiritual section, letting them fall into his basket of curiosity. And like a beautiful orchestrated scene brought about by these beings of light, he came home to a postcard. It was from a friend to whom he had not spoken to in a long while. There was a picture of the Hollywood sign on the front of it. He slowly turned it over and it simply said “Moved to California and I have an extra room, if you ever want it.” He still has that postcard to this day.
 

Right then he made the decision.  He packed his car up and drove across country to California with a new sense of wonder. Although his health continued to be challenging, he began learning, studying and growing, making friends and even living a normal life. Although he went on to have a successful career in advertising, his basket of curiosity continued to refill itself.  He studied at Agape, listening to Rev. Michael Beckwith and attending SMU’s program in Spiritual Psychology. Until a string of events eventually lead him back to the east coast. Jeff would not be the person he is today without going to Hollywood. The beings of light pointed him in the direction of his path and guided him to the lessons that helped him live his soul’s purpose.  He learned, loved, lost and gained all to become the inspiration I know him to be.
 

When he returned home from Hollywood, he was again very ill.  He was then diagnosed with Severe Crohns Disease. Although now, in co-creation with his physicians, he was armed with the knowledge of how he could positively move forward.
 

A third diagnoses came in November of 2011.  Ankylosing Spondylitis. A.S. is a chronic inflammatory disease of the axial skeleton and joints. Immune mechanisms are thought to play a key role in the development of this disease. With most of the body’s immune system residing in the colon, and Jeff no longer having his, his body was now fighting itself in the form of his spine fusing together.
 

Through it all, the one constant has been his sense of humor, that and the undeniable light he shines on others. I have watched him battle the circumstances in his life all with a sense of wonder. It is easy to find peace and happiness when you are comfortable, and easy to see beauty in others when they support you. I know from many a night on the phone, how he battles the unconsciousness of the world. Choosing to fight the illusion of separation with a sword of love, that when strikes gives life, not death. However, to find these things in the dark night of the soul and unrelenting physical illness is truly remarkable. It shows a sovereign strength of spirit.
 

Where a lot of my admiration for Jeff stems from, is that he lives by example. Walking bravely through his challenges, he holds everyone in reverence as he speaks with the empathy of experience. He has slayed his inner dragons for the most part, and even befriended the others, yet his curiosity to grow and learn remains as if he was back in the book store that first day. With Jeff, I laugh harder that I have ever laughed with anyone else in my life. He defends my world from darkness with kind words and a simple smile that says he understands and will support me in any challenge that I may face, spiritually, mentally and physically. He is a true friend.
 

There is a new generation of spiritual minds that I seek inspiration from. People like Kute Blackson, Lissa Rankin, Brian Johnson and Mastin Kipp. I know their stories, read their books and follow their blogs. But my daily "check in" comes in the form of a text or a phone call from Jeff. It is the one thing I need to be reminded that we ALL have a purpose to give our gifts to the world. So when I need to be reminded of my own potential on the dark, forested paths of this journey, there is one inspiration I don't need to seek out. 

I have my hero on speed dial.