Who’s Carrying You?

You may have had a good mom, but I had the best. She died suddenly and unexpectedly a few years ago, and after her death, many things were different, of course. But something I couldn’t put my finger on felt like it was missing from my life. A year later, my brother and I were talking about our feelings of loss and grief. He said, “I can definitely tell that Mom isn’t here praying for me anymore.”

That was it. That was what I had been missing. My mom was a prayer warrior, and she had been praying for me my whole life. Through my colicky infancy, she prayed. Through my rocky teenage years, she prayed. Through college and young adulthood, she had been praying for me. All of those years, she was carrying my triumphs and failures, my mistakes and my travels to the feet of Jesus. And then suddenly, she wasn’t.

I could feel that void in my spirit. My mom was always carrying me to Jesus.

In the second chapter of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is teaching and preaching in a home. People are packed inside and out, straining to hear him. Four friends who live nearby hear that Jesus is in town, and they run to get their fifth friend, who is a paralytic. At this time in history, anyone with a disability is considered an outcast. This paralyzed man is shunned by society, but not by his friends. They carry him to the house, but they can’t get through the crowds. If they can only get their friend to him, he could be healed! Then they get radical. They climb up on the roof and lower their friend down to Jesus through a hole.

This had to be very disruptive to Jesus, but the friends persisted. They had to get their pal to Jesus.

“When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’” (Mark 2:5 NIV).

Did you catch that?  “When Jesus saw THEIR faith”? The faith and dedication of his friends healed a man who had been paralyzed. They literally carried their friend to the feet of Jesus and their faith made the difference.

My mom’s prayers made a difference in my life.

Who in your life has carried you to Jesus? Maybe it was a grandparent, a neighbor, a friend, or a spouse. Someone has undoubtedly been praying for you, pleading with God on your behalf. Someone has been climbing a rooftop, or some other seemingly impossible obstacle, to get you to Jesus.

I mentioned the void in my life left by my mom to an older woman in my church, also a prayer warrior. She agreed with me and immediately offered to take up praying for me. Psalm 68:6 says, “God sets the lonely in families” (NIV). With the death of my mother, I had become an orphan. God gave me a new prayer warrior, a second mother, to carry me to Jesus. I am so thankful for Phyllis’ prayers and wise counsel in my life. She has two great sons, but she claims me as her daughter. God sets the lonely in families.

Having such loving support and prayer power in my life has challenged me to look around.

Carrying others to Jesus, being a prayer warrior, will be neither easy nor convenient. Just as the paralyzed man’s four friends had to work hard to get their friend to Jesus, you, too, may encounter hardships. But the dedication and persistence of the four friends is an example for and an inspiration to us. Who can I carry to Jesus? Who is a paralytic outcast today? Is there someone I can hoist onto a rooftop in order to get them to Jesus?

Jesus gave us another example of persistence in prayer in Luke 8:1-8.

“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said, ‘In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for these chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?’” (NIV)

God will hear your prayers. Your persistence in praying for others will make a difference in their lives. Your faith and action on behalf of someone else can even bring about miracles.

You have been carried to Jesus. Now, who can you carry?

Annie Carlson is rooted like a turnip to the plains of North Dakota where she raises great food, large numbers of farm animals, and three free-range kids with her husband. You can find her with either a book or knitting needles

in her hands as she dreams up her next adventure.

Photograph © Neely Wang, used with permission