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The Day After Heart Surgery

September 7, 2012 by Sybil Macbeth 4 Comments Leave a Comment

A friend said to me yesterday, “You seem so calm.” She was right; I really have been calm. For the past forty-eight hours I feel like Andy and I have been floating on a cloud of witnesses. We have been held up on a magic carpet of prayer. For once I have surrendered and accepted the ride.

This two-day experience of my husband’s heart surgery has confirmed something I knew in my head but not so much in my heart. When my own arteries to God feel clogged and impassable, there is a whole community of friends, family, acquaintances, and even non-acquaintances praying on my behalf. This community becomes my “bypass” to God. If I ever wonder whether my prayers for others are really worth anything, I know now. The significance of my prayers is not their content as much as their intent. My prayers, the prayers of others, and all of us who pray them become part of the large cloud holding a person aloft and loved during adversity.

Prayers come in all flavors: verbal prayers, silent prayers, danced prayers, drawn prayers, sung prayers, walking prayers….Here are the prayers of my friends Sharon and Randall for Andy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proper 17 Collect–Book of Common Prayer (p. 233)

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Praying in Color Tagged With: Book of Common Prayer Proper 17, bypass, bypass surgery, cloud of witnesses

Heart Healing

September 5, 2012 by Sybil Macbeth 7 Comments Leave a Comment

Today has been long and scary and grace-filled. At 6:30 AM my husband Andy had quadruple bypass surgery. As a minister’s wife, I’m used to other people’s spouses in recovery and waiting rooms. It is a new experience for me to be on the receiving end of the prayers. Andy is thin and a non-smoker. He’s not an obvious candidate for heart disease.

The long wait for news from the operating room and the scariness of the procedure are obvious. (The long wait was actually broken by hourly updates from the OR nurses–an amazing practice of kindness.) What i never expected was the “surround-sound” of love from all around the country and beyond. Emails and texts from Maine, Florida, Washington, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, California, Louisiana, Delaware, North Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, Sweden,…continue to arrive. A virtual prayer vigil has been operative for the past forty-eight hours–since we found out the surgery would happen.

There was also a little Praying in Color vigil at the hospital in the cafeteria. Friends Randall, Sharon, and Susan and I sat in the cafeteria and prayed and drew. My prayer is below.

I am overwhelmed by the vastness and wideness of love poured out on Andy and me. Thanks be to God and to friends.

There are so many wonderful heart passages in Scripture. Here are two I have held close to my heart today:

  • So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 2Corinthians 4:16 (NRSV)
  • A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26 (NRSV)

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Filed Under: Praying in Color Tagged With: 2Corinthians 4:16, bypass surgery, Ezekiel 36:26, Praying in Color

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