Friends:

Sometimes I’m not sure how much to share online. I want to keep it all close, but, at the same time, I need to let my friends and community know what’s going on.

Sometimes my family needs help. I have to admit that I often don’t like that part of my life, only because it’s hard to ask. Humbling, sometimes humiliating, yet always formative. This is how community is meant to function. Through the years, people have committed unbelievably generous acts of kindness and support for us. We couldn’t have done it without you.

We sometimes need help, but we always need prayer, and this is a prayer request post. Your prayer for Lexi is the help we need right now.

James writes “Is anyone in trouble? Let them pray.” Later, he says “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well.” And finally, he writes “the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

Let’s apply this to our situation. First, my daughter Lexi is in some trouble. Not with the law, not at school, and certainly not with a boy. She is in trouble because of a rather simple viral infection that requires a rather simple treatment… except that, with Lexi, things aren’t always simple. She’s sick and she doesn’t understand, cognitively, what’s going on.

Lexi is sick enough to be in the Pediatric ICU. She can’t eat. She can barely drink. What she can do, however, is pull an IV out of her arm and disconnect sensors. Because of that, we’ve had to keep her sedated since Thursday night, which allows the needed meds to successfully reach her ailing body. I’ve been here with her most of the time and have tried 9 different entree items on the menu. Meanwhile, Britt has been so helpful, present supportive, and good to us. Between the two of us, Lexi hasn’t really been alone. For this… for Britt… I’m grateful.

Here’s how you can pray: 1) for quick healing and relief from this viral infection. 2) For her to start eating and drinking again, like old times. 3) For the rest of my family, from which I am currently removed. Thankfully, I have a saintly mother-in-law who holds the fort down better than I ever could.

Forgive my pastoral ways, but there’s one thing I need to say about prayer. In the middle of all those verses I cited above (5:13-16), there’s a concerning part that sometimes gets skipped over. James tells us to “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” This is an essential ingredient to prayer because there is no righteousness without confession. The road to righteousness includes acknowledging we might be on the road to wrong-ches-ness. I apologize for this ridiculous Dad joke, but I am, after all, a ridiculous Dad.

Why would James, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, include “sin management” in the middle of a prayer for sick people? Probably because our greatest illness is spiritual. We are sick, spiritually, because of sin. Physical sickness exists because we live in a broken world. It wasn’t the original design.

I don’t believe Lexi has sinned and brought this upon herself. But I know that we live in a world that is tremendously weighed down by all of our sin, including mine. It’s almost like James is saying “let’s not forget about the root cause.” When we remember the root cause, we remember the central healing that Jesus brings in the coming Kingdom of God. A painless world is brought about by a sinless world.

Jesus isn’t just a great physician. He is the Savior of the world who makes us right with God, often using pain and suffering as a way of getting our attention.

We pray because it works. Join me in praying, by faith, that Jesus would continue to hold and heal Lexi.

Thank you, dear friends.

PS: I’ve been reminded that spending a few days in a room full of beeps and buzzers and sleeping on an industrial grade couch really gives one time to reflect, however, I cannot recommend it unless it’s absolutely necessary.