Thought I'd write this before I forget it:
My church always goes hog wild over July 4th. They celebrate on the night of July 3rd, though. There are more than 3,000 people packed in like sardines with not even standing room. I think what they do is, they take shotguns with them and visit every house in a 2 mile radius and knock on the door asking if there are any veterans inside. When the veteran comes out, I think they point the gun and say, "Buddy, we need you to show up at this here church on July 3rd at 7:30 and if you don't, we’ll be paying you another visit with this here gun." At any rate, several hundred people who have served in all branches of the military come to the service and they all march down to the front and the whole service is to just honor them and thank them for setting aside their lives for a time so they could serve their country. Well, the evening went on and finally the pastor asked if there was anyone who had served in Iraq, and one lone Marine raised his hand. I saw that it was my friend Ken's son, Brett - 20 years old and just back from Iraq. And this reminded me of a story Ken told me last year which I'd like to share with you.
Ken is a chiropractor and I dropped by his office one afternoon in March of 2002. He told me that all day long, he had been singing a song that had the words, "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Ken said he couldn't get the song out of his mind. He was literally playing it in his head all day long and he thought that was so strange. It was as though the song attached itself to him. He said he knew it had something to do with his son.
Well, two days later he called me and told me the most amazing story. Brett was nearing the end of his boot camp training in North Carolina. Now, the Marines is quite difficult to get into. You don’t go because Mommy and Daddy think it's a good idea. You have to really want to go. And it is also very hard to stay. A lot of boys drop out of boot camp because it's so hard. It's the hardest boot camp to survive of all the branches of military service. At the end of boot camp, they run an exhaustive race which clinches their graduating position. Not very many kids finish the race because it's just too tough. Well, I got a call from Ken saying the day he had been singing that song, it turned out Brett had been running this race and it was getting harder and harder and he was just about to give up. He was so disappointed in himself because he loved being in the Marines and he wanted so much to succeed. The last thing he wanted to do was give up and not finish this race.
All of a sudden, the words of the song his father had been singing all day came to him. The exact same words. He did not even know the words, they just came to him. And the minute these words came into his head, all of a sudden a supernatural power took over and he said he felt his legs running but not by his power. Something lifted him up and ran the rest of the race for him. Whatever it was, was not him; it was running the race for him. And not only was he one of the few who were able to finish the race, but he finished first and therefore graduated at the top of his class.
Brett was not particularly close to the Lord at that time, but when his father told him how he had in effect been praying for him all day by praying those verses over him through that song, Brett knew that God himself had lifted him up with wings as eagles and it really sobered him. He could not deny that God had answered his father's prayers for him that day.
We never know how our prayers affect others. Most of the time only God really knows! But this story sure inspired me to pray!