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“Sometimes on the bus I fill my head with popular songs, substituting words. Like: ‘Freedom is just another word for trusting in the Lord.’ You can do it with any song, any time, and no one even knows what you’re up to. It sure can beat stress and saves a big psychiatric bill. Here’s another one I like:

Row, row, row your boat
Gently toward the Lord.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is for the Lord.”

“My first true connection to God came to me just a year after the transplant. I had a bad day and felt like I needed to get away. I called my old friends and went to the bar rooms, like old times. I stayed out very late that night, worrying about my girlfriend and though I did not get drunk my behavior was sinful. I was very close to being sucked into the same lifestyle I had barely survived before. I felt a tremendous amount of guilt consume me.

“As I got into the door of my house at maybe 4 AM, I immediately, tearfully confessed to my girlfriend. She was not that forgiving, she thought I had another woman. I went into the shower and the tears poured from me like a waterfall, they were the tears of sorrow to the Almighty, the tears of hurt, like I felt Jesus’s pain, they were the tears of true repentance. I stripped myself before the Lord with no excuses, I was guilty, I was at His mercy. I was not close to Jesus yet but I know that that moment was my moment of salvation, my true turning point, my beginning of a new life. I felt the forgiveness, though I will remember the guilt. It is not to forgive and forget, but to forgive or to be forgiven and learn.

“That night I learned what sin does, how people feel betrayed and so does God, and I learned the pain sin causes. That was my first good prayer, the one begging God for forgiveness and confessing my guilt, true repentance. I was willing to do anything to make it up to my girlfriend and to God. My connection was made.”

“We are meant to be connected. We cannot carry the weight of all the pressures of this world on our shoulders. We were created for God and He is our caretaker. He makes the burdens light.

“I truly connect with the ill person when I pray for them. I become close to them, I learn to love them.

“I don’t believe prayer is intended to move God because He already knows all things. It is to move us who pray closer to Him and to others, and then to gather His people together in His spiritual world.”

“My prayers are mostly in my head. I pray out loud in church. I tried to pray at the dinner table but it does not go over well. It is difficult today. The children are too prideful, and other people at gatherings will belittle the sacredness of this offering.

“People say prayer is repetitive and has no value. Not true. If done right, with true convictions in the heart, true caring about others, true repentance, true worship. All lead to true love and a healthy spirit.”

“I pray to let God strip me of my selfishness. I sing this part of the Janis Joplin song, ‘Take another little piece of me Lord now please TAKE IT.’ They are pieces of me I do not need, selfish pieces that get me into trouble. They are remains of my anger, fear, lust, pride, jealousy, laziness, and others.

“I try to give my will to God so I can do His will. I do to a Beatles song, ‘It there is anything that you want, anything I can do, Just call on me.’”

“Focusing on the love of Jesus enables you to pray for all the people you don’t like, you are bitter to. It replaces bad thoughts, and is the first step in patching up wounds that were inflicted. It brings love back.

“When I am betrayed by someone I love, this is a hard time to pray. I pray for the person hurting me but the pain remains till all is resolved through God’s wisdom.”

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