The Japanese women’s soccer team

The Japanese women’s soccer team

In the recent World Cup of Womens Soccer, the championship was between the USA and Japan.
“Did you hear what went down in their dressing room before the game?” she asked excitedly.
“Whose dressing room” I demanded.
“The Japanese”, she replied. “They passed around pictures of the wounded and the dead following the tragic tsunami and the reactor meltdown. And they meditated on them before they went out on the field.”

Japan had played the USA twenty-two times before, and never beaten them.
The Japanese team was the decided under-dog.
But they never gave up. And they won!

It was a stirring victory. They lifted their country, and we can all celebrate with them in honor of the fallen, and the tens of thousands who have to repair their lives and homes.

“You know what I think?” she asked thoughtfully.
I waited.
“There is a takeaway here: when we say we will pray for someone who is hurting or in trouble, that’s good.”
“But it’s better if we write their name on the refrigerator, to help us remember to pray.”
“Sure”, I acknowledged, as she continued.

“But it’s even better if we call them next day, or next week to ask them how things are, and how we might help”.
“I agree…..it’s a bit empty if we say we shall pray, but then forget all about it, as sometimes happens with me.”
“Yes”, she affirmed, “I don’t think I will say I will pray for someone, unless I commit to calling them back. The callback is what makes it authentic.”

The Gray Nomad
Probing the practice of Christian believers……