Raleigh Kincaid | March 26, 2020
My dear church family, let me share some news and some thoughts. You may have heard that I have been in the hospital. I was in the coronavirus testing, rule out, and other isolation since Monday night. Spoiler alert - it’s Thursday and I’m home now! I do have some health issues that probably contributed to the symptoms that, along with my compromised immune system, led them to take these measures. Hopefully, things are on a better path now. The Covid-19 test was negative, and assuming it continues to be, I am hopefully on the mend and working on dealing the other health issues that this incident brought to light.
When one is isolated in a hospital for 3-4 days, there is a lot of time to think and probably too much! It may sound odd but because I have so many friends, levels of friends, and groups of friends, I was pretty stingy about sharing what was going on. The news evolved so quickly and what I heard in one terrifying moment often transformed into something else the next. It was just too much to convey and then update over and over. But I also craved everyone knowing, and I remember thinking how much I coveted all those prayers especially in those terrifying moments.
In the middle of one of my long nights, something important came to mind. It occurred to me that even if you didn’t know you were praying for me, you were. What is prayer if not an extension of one’s love? I realized that as long as people are choosing to place themselves in a love relationship with me, then the love itself will take care of the rest. The prayer is carried and even driven by love. I know that I am very loved and through that love people are praying for me all the time and I for them.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of honest, direct, and fervent prayer. I believe without question it has a special power but in the middle of that dark and scary night I realized that what generates honest, direct, and fervent prayer is the love we have for the one we are praying to and our love for the deepest longings of our hearts. As the scriptures suggest, God knows our prayers before we utter them. I offer today that God knows our prayers even if we don’t know to utter them - as long as love is present.
So I thank you so much for all the prayers you offered on my behalf during my recent crisis. Let’s all focus, especially in this time, on growing our love for God and one another. We shall certainly mention in our daily prayers one another’s known needs but for those we may not yet know of, rest assured that our love for our brothers and sisters sends those prayers straight to the throne of the Almighty anyway.
Comments
As a Baptist church affirming the liberty of conscience, we recognize each individual's right to his or her own opinion and welcome your comments, positive or negative. We strive for communication that invites a respectful and personal exchange of opinions and thoughts. This is often not possible through running dialogues in our comment section. To respect the dignity of all persons, we may delete comments that contain profanity, hate speech, or threatening language.
On March 27, 2020, Gerard Howell said:
You have been on our prayer list daily and shall continue to be. Love from Gerard and Jane
On March 28, 2020, Connie said:
I have felt those prayers as I too have been recovering. So very blessed by the he strength of prayers . It has held us together during this difficult time
On March 28, 2020, Karen Perch said:
Raleigh, we love and care about you, and keep you in prayer even though we rarely see you these days. Love to you, Bill and Karen
On March 27, 2020, Elizabeth S Mccubbin said:
So glad you are home and doing better.