brandyglows

Did you know Hemingway took his own life?

You probably did. I didn’t.

I also didn’t know (until a tweep informed me) that today he would have been 112.

So, I Googled it. He shot himself.

I feel I should have known this. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been getting friendly. One of my favourite writers recommended his work, and I recently picked up The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Sun Also Rises.

For the past two weeks, Steven Pressfield has devoted Writing Wednesdays to Hemingway’s Paris interview. I have become utterly fascinated with the guy.

And his ending is so sad. But it’s given me an idea.

Early this morning I read Brandee Shafer’s guest post on Mary DeMuth’s blog about prayer and her thin place. In the piece, she told a heartbreaking story about losing a loved one and how email and phone prayers helped get her through it.

My friend Meghan prays with me on the phone. She’s good at knowing just when to ask. It’s brilliant because it’s instant gratification. You don’t have to say you’ll pray for someone and then feel bad when you forget. You just do it. Like holy sneakers.

I believe God is always with us. When we pray it reminds us. It’s rather like saying hello to the person in the room who is so quiet, you keep forgetting she’s there.

In the blog post, Brandee ends with a quote from her friend; when we feel the need to pray, it’s God inviting us to work alongside the divine.

This odd combination of learning one of my new heroes took his own life and reading a post that sings of the power of prayer got me thinking.

Someone asked me to explain what I meant by “digital pastor” the other day on Twitter. My hands started to sweat as I considered how to respond in less than 140 characters, but I managed to get it out multiplying by two:

“I guess the simplest def is that I don’t have a congregation. I hope to use my blog to love people and inspire them.”

“I want to participate with God and people in restoring Shalom and wholeness to the world. Heh, hard to sum up in a tweet. ”

I want to pray for you. You can email me and tell me how you want me to pray. And then I’ll send an emailed prayer just for you.

My email address is brandyglows (at) gmail (dot) com.

I can’t promise I’ll reply immediately. I can promise I’ll reply. And if you’d like to partner with me and write prayers, too, well, I’d be delighted. 

My prayers aren’t particularly special. But God gave me the gift of words. And I’d like use them this way.

Please, flood me with emails. Let’s restore Shalom together.

*Painting via Marco Raaphorst. Talented bloke.