5 Words

I receive a daily email from John Fischer. On April 23rd, it caught at me deeply, and I thought I'd share it with all of you.

Five words
by John Fischer

I was reminded recently of a story I used to tell about a man who was the last to share in his prayer group. They were going around in a circle, giving their personal requests for prayer when they came to him and he took a deep breath and proceeded to relate some very ugly things he was going through in his life right then including some anger at God and a real sense of being depressed. He had wanted to avoid these painful things and unresolved issues and just focus on how good God is, but the reality and intensity of his present state of affairs prevented him from telling anything but the truth. When he finished, there was a long pause, and the man related to me how in that silence he had regretted for a moment revealing as much as he did. It was then that someone broke the silence with five very special words: "Can we go around again?"

Five words—that's all—but oh how important those five words are. Those five words say: You are not alone. If the rest of us had been as honest, we would all have equally challenging things to say. In fact, let's go around again so we can!

What good is so-called prayer time if we don't get down to it? Who are we touching if we are not allowing ourselves to be touched? Just remember, whatever it is that you are afraid to reveal… do it. It will only mean that you will have to go back around again for the sake of everybody else.