We all suffer; it is for someone else that our prayers must be directed!

We all suffer; it is for someone else that our prayers must be directed!

Tonight I was in bed around 9:00 PM, as usual, but the neuropathy wouldn’t let go and I finally had to get up and pray for others who suffer the same malady.  Thinking about how easy it can become to ask the Lord for some relief until my mind switched to the “Agony in the Garden” before Jesus was to be arrested.  What is it that he pleaded with his Father to take this cup away?:  “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.”  (Lk 22: 42).  

My continued thoughts needed no more urging than to offer my suffering for one of my daughters who has the same malady; but she is not diabetic as I am.  My wife was concerned for me but I told her to pray for Linda; I’m 90 but she is too young to have this keeping her up at nights.  My ministry just opened another facet of prayer by praying for the many with neuropathy and the tireless nights that sleep becomes next to impossible.  Jesus suffered as the Suffering Servant for me.  What more can I do than to at least offer a little suffering for someone else.  

If someone wakes up to pain from anything unwanted, pray for them if possible through their physical or mental obstruction.  I assure you this prayer will get immediate attention since you are becoming a saintly soldier willing to suffer for someone you may not even know.  

Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am well pleased, Upon whom I have put my spirit.  (Is 42: 1).  Of course he is speaking of the Messiah; but it is his own ministry that he was Incarnated for and the example through his Passion that sets the very path for all of us.  

Yet it was his infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted.  (Is 53: 4).  We are not facing a cross for someone else; or are we?  Who among us is willing to accept what we do not choose but by taking upon ourselves what is offered through sanctification of suffering for anyone who calls in the night, we are now picking up someone else’s cross and adding it to ours.

For some who may feel that their own suffering is enough to bear pain without taking on someone else’s malady, remember, however, someone already took the pain from sin and has given them a free ride to heaven.  His name of course is Christ; the Son of God who loves this person so much that he stepped away from heaven and took on a human body so that all of us could reap the blessings of heaven, forever.

The next time you wake up feeling pain from a headache, or difficulty going back to sleep because your body cries for relief and you can find none, say a prayer for someone you do not know who has the same problem and give them some relief from an unknown brother or sister.

Ralph B. Hathaway