Help Me Live by Lori Hope

Author:Lori Hope
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781587613722
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Published: 2011-09-12T21:00:00+00:00

The power of believing in someone

Soon after Carol was diagnosed with cancer, she emailed almost everyone she knew, requesting that they send good thoughts or prayers. She knew she needed all the support she could get, and felt no shame in asking for it. Carol received hundreds of emails, calls, and greeting cards from friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and friends of friends and even a few strangers. Everyone encouraged, assured, or buoyed her hopes, except for one person.

“An old friend from grade school, Brandon, emailed me and said he wasn’t going to pray for me, because he didn’t believe prayer was effective. He was a microbiologist,” Carol added, “and he did say he would send all love my way.”

He also sent a bouquet of white lilies. “Their sweet, strong fragrance stuck in my nasal hairs—just like his refusal to pray for me stuck in my heart,” Carol said.

“As much as I appreciated his love and respected his right to his opinion, Brandon’s comment pierced me.” She wanted to believe the prayers would make a difference, and even though she believed thoughts, love, and prayer similar in purpose, she did believe there was something different about prayer. She had attended the Harvard University School of Continuing Education’s Spirituality and Healing in Medicine conference with Herbert Benson, MD, a pioneer in mind-body medicine and the creator of the Relaxation Response. And she kept up with the latest on healing. A recent study showed that patients in a coronary care unit who were prayed for had significantly fewer complications. But another study—the one Carol’s grammar school friend cited—had shown prayer had no influence.

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