Poor Timing

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When does the desire for bacon and the need to pray cause conflict? Let me tell you.

Last Tuesday evening, I because I wanted to spend some extra time in intercessory prayer, I decided to fast from food for the next 24 hours. My timing was not optimal. First, I had to consider the few medications I’m required to take.  Some of them have to be taken with food; and besides, I can no longer swallow pills with just water, I need something more to get them to go down. So Wednesday morning I ate a few spoonsful of yoghurt to help the medicine go down. Honey would have tasted much better.

Wednesday mornings are also the time when I meet some of the other old guys from church for breakfast at a local restaurant. I couldn’t miss that, so I went and sat there as they tucked in to eggs and bacon and sausage and hash browns and pancakes, while I sipped coffee. The waitress even frowned at me.

Upon my arrival back home, my wife announced that we needed to go to the bakery because she had to bring treats for her Bible study the next day. Racine is a town with a rich Danish heritage, and Kringle is the signature danish pastry. It’s made from flour and butter mostly, filled with various kinds of sweet stuff like berries, cherries, and apples, or nuts, or cheese, folded over and topped with icing. They smell delicious. And we went to a bakery that had shelves full of them. I nearly swooned.

While we were there, my wife decided that it would be nice to have some strawberries to go with the pastries, so we went to the grocery store and picked up three boxes of red, ripe strawberries. Their aroma filled the car as we drove home.

I hastily retreated to my study, closed the door, and laid out some of my old devotional books and prayer guides. I began to alternately read and pray. Wanting to lift up a plea for a situation involving someone I love, I turned to an old devotional, “My Utmost For His Highest” by Oswald Chambers. Curious, I turned to the readings for that day. The two pages that opened to me were on the subject of intercessory prayer! I read one, then took a thirty minute walk. Needing a drink after the walk, I went to the kitchen, and there, next to the sink, was a whole plate of freshly-washed strawberries. I grabbed the cup of water, and ran back to the study, with six hours to go before supper.

But what a richly blessed time it was! I was guided to Daniel’s prayer for Israel (Daniel 9:3-19) and to Psalm 119. You might think that a prayer for repentance is a strange way to intercede, but it put me in the proper position as a humbled sinner, asking God to be gracious. I told God over and over that I was not praying for a specific outcome, something that I thought might be good, but acknowledging His wisdom, pleading with Him to do what was good for my loved one. My final prayer was the prayer that never fails, “Thy will be done.”

At the end of the day, I abstained from my customary glass of wine, and settled in for a delicious supper of leftovers. God is good!