The Empty
Chair
A man's daughter had
asked the local minister to come and pray with her father. When
the
minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped
up
on two pillows. An empty chair sat beside his bed. The minister assumed
that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.
"I guess you were
expecting me," he said. "No,
who are you?" said the father. The
minister
told him his name and then remarked, "I
see the empty chair; I
figured
you knew I was going to show up." "Oh yeah, the chair," said the
bedridden
man. "Would you mind closing the door?"
Puzzled, the minister shut the
door.
"I have never told
anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man. "But all of my
life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the
pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head."
"I abandoned any
attempt at prayer," the old man continued, "until one day, four
years
ago my best friend said to me, "Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter
of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest."
"Sit down in a chair;
place an empty chair in front of you and in faith see Jesus on
the
chair. It's not spooky because he promised, 'I'll be with you
always.'
Then just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right
now."
"So, I tried it and
I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm
careful
though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd
either
have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm."
The
minister was
deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the
journey. Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil, and
returned
to the church. Two nights later the daughter called to tell the
minister
that her daddy had died that afternoon.
"Did he die in peace?"
he asked. "Yes, when I left the house
about two o'clock, he
called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the
cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him
dead."
But
there was something
strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned
over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make
of that?"
The
minister wiped
a tear from his eye and said, "I wish
we could all go like that."
Author:
Max Lucado
"Upwords"
The
teaching
ministry of
Max
Lucado
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