Intimacy

‘Intimacy is closeness between people in personal relationships. It's what builds over time as you connect with someone, grow to care about each other, and feel more and more comfortable during your time together. It can include physical or emotional closeness, or even a mix of the two.”
- some intraweb site somewhere

I've started to pray with the people closest to me.  It’s been a real change in those relationships.  I’m not doing it to be showy or make myself bigger, or better.  Ha, I still cling to God too much for that!  It just kind of happened one day.  I have been keeping a prayer list, but one day on the phone with one of my oldest friends, I just said, “can I do something?” Then I started to pray.

It is such a humbling act.  To lift someone up.  It burns their hurts, their problems, their joy into ourselves.  It’s sharing life with another.  It's one of the most intimate acts I've experienced.

My prayers - short - shotgun blasts to heaven or Olympus or wherever.  Fuck, I’m still trying to figure all that out.  Jesus gets it, even I don’t always say the right words - then there are the groans and wailing that are some of the deepest prayers.  “God, help me!”*

Last night I prayed with a new friend.  A special friend.  It was just that.  Intimate. 

I wept afterwards.  Good/God tears.

Maybe I haven’t prayed with you, but I’ve probably prayed for you.  I am still a mess of a human who gets all tangled up in himself.  Selfish and somewhat self-absorbed. (Ok, at times DEEPLY self-absorbed)  And I care.  Even if I don’t always show it.  If you’re in my phone these days, it’s probably because I owe you money (medical bills, etc.) or because you MATTER TO ME>!

So… “Can I do something?”

~ Peace

The Burtle

*“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”

Romans 8:28

Zadkiel