Unexpected Ways It Pays To Pray

Just for fun Carolyn and I recently went on a midweek overnight trip to Julian, California. We stayed in the historic Julian Gold Rush Hotel Bed and Breakfast. (Carolyn got a killer deal!)

Lake Cuyamaca hike

At the breakfast in the parlor, there were only three other people and none of them were talking. Our food came and it was time to pray. This is our custom since it was Jesus’ practice (see Matthew 14:19-21; Luke 24:30).

Since it was so quiet, I was pretty sure we would be overheard.

This kind of situation used to give me anxiety, but now I see it as an opportunity to share our faith. So I went for it. I also made sure to end my prayer with, “in Jesus name I pray, amen.”

I figure that you never know who your prayer might bless, or challenge, or what kind of a witness it might be.

Sometimes these prayers have had a surprising impact.

We were enjoying the lovely breakfast when suddenly one of the three people got up and came over and stood by our table. She asked, “Excuse me, but I was wondering if you two are born again Christians?” We affirmed that we are and introduced ourselves. Her name was Katie. She explained that she was hoping that we would be willing to pray for a relationship problem she was having.

By the way, if you don’t know what it means to be a “born again” Christian, I hope you’ll find out by clicking here.

We chatted with Katie for a while, and at the end we prayed for her, right there at our table.

Not only did we have the joy of praying over Katie, in the midst of chatting she told us about a hike around nearby Lake Cuyamaca. It turned out to be one of the best hikes we’ve ever taken. It was gorgeous and in addition we saw a momma deer with her fawns and many beautiful birds.

This experience affirmed what I have been learning: It pays to pray before meals, even when strangers can hear every word you are saying!

Several years ago we had another surprising experience. We were celebrating our anniversary on an overnight in San Clemente, California by the pier—a beautiful spot. At breakfast, at a sidewalk seating restaurant, we said our usual prayer of thanksgiving for God’s provision.

That particular day we also somehow got started quietly singing a few old familiar hymns. I think we might have sung “Great is Thy Faithfulness” and “Amazing Grace.”

Nobody said anything and I figured that if anyone noticed, they probably thought we were just a couple of beachside oddballs.

We thoroughly enjoyed our sidewalk breakfast. Then, when it was time to leave, the waitress said with a smile, “Well, you don’t owe anything today. The people at the table beside you paid your bill!”

We were dumbfounded. We hadn’t much noticed the people around us. When asked who they were, the waitress pointed to a younger couple walking away, already halfway down the street.

Wow. It pays to pause to pray.

On many occasions we have been in restaurants and admiringly watched people at other tables bow their heads and pray. It is always an encouragement to our faith to see others publically practice theirs.

What does it do when we pause to pray before we eat—even in public places? Here are my thoughts:

It honors Jesus’ practice of prayer before partaking.

It cultivates gratitude in our hearts and perhaps others.

It helps us maintain consistency between our private and public lives.

It is a small witness to our faith, when we pray in Jesus name.

That’s my take on the subject. Can anybody say “amen?”

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy “Five Keys to Stay Happily Married for 34 Years.”

Question: Have you had any interesting experiences praying in public or seeing others do so? Leave a comment below. (It is easy with this site, no code words, etc.)

My Heroic Great Grandpa And The Pre-Titanic—Part 3

My great grandpa had an authentic Danish name: Eskild Alfred Eskildsen.

My great-grandpa Eskild Alfred Eskildsen

In 1904, as he was attempting to immigrate to America, the SS Norge sank in the Atlantic. Only 20% of the 800 aboard survived. Eskild should have drowned, especially since he didn’t force his way into a lifeboat and instead helped others board them and don lifebelts.

Read his heroic story in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.

Surviving in the lifeboat was no picnic! The 19 souls endured seven days with virtually no food and hydration.

Finally on the eighth day, July 6 1904, their prayers for rescue were answered. Lifeboat #4 was spotted by the schooner Olga Pauline. Weakened so severely from thirst and hunger, they were hardly able to board the rescue boat. Once aboard they scurried to the nearest water supply like wild animals.

The rescue ship Olga Pauline

They were taken to the Faroe Islands and later Eskild made it back home. It took about a month just to gain enough strength to travel home.

What would you do after such a harrowing experience? Would you never go near a ship again? I wonder if I would have nightmares the rest of my life about dying of starvation, dehydration or drowning.

My great grandpa was undaunted. The next year he boarded another ship headed for America with his wife Agnes and their seven children. The youngest was my grandma Cecilia—only 6 weeks old when they left.

This time the ship made it safely to New York City. Imagine how they felt as they passed the Statue of Liberty and arrived at Ellis Island. Certainly they felt relief and excitement. Yet they also must have felt fear and uncertainty in this strange land where they could not understand or speak the language.

Eventually they made it to Michigan and to Uncle Jens Sorensen who was their immigration sponsor.

There Eskild worked in logging camps and in the iron mines.

Uncle Jens Sorensen

Tragically, in 1920 Agnes died. My grandma, then in the sixth grade, had to quit school and take care of the younger children. What did Eskild do? He returned to Denmark and found a new Danish wife Anna, whom he brought back to the USA.

In 1924 they purchased a farm near Alvin, Wisconsin. But after five hard-working years, a fire destroyed all the buildings, machinery and livestock.

They returned to Michigan and rented another farm.

In 1937 Eskild died from acute appendicitis.

His family legacy included 22 children from two wives, one of them my grandma Cecilia. She gave birth to my father Claude Aaron Williams in 1926. He and mom brought me into the world in 1955.

My grandma holding my dad

Here are a couple more lessons I see from my heroic great grandpa’s story:

ONE: Put Fears Aside and Move Ahead

According to Dr. R. C. Sproul, Jesus’ number one prohibition is not, “Don’t lie,” or “don’t lust,” or some other commonplace sin. Instead, by far, Jesus’ number one warning is, “Don’t be afraid.”

Why might this be? Perhaps it’s because fear so often cripples us and prevents us from becoming all He wants us to become.

When paralyzed by fear we fail to reach the exciting new world God has for us.

Note to self: Overcome fear; get back in the boat and journey into the exciting future Jesus has in store for me.

TWO: Never Give Up

One of the phrases my dad (who died in 2011) shared with me often was from Winston Churchill; “Never give in–never, never, never, never!”

Thanks dad and great grandpa. What a valuable lesson you helped me apply—like when I wanted to quit playing the trombone in the 5th grade (a story for another blog).

Grandpa and grandma Cecilia with grandchildren (I’m the one by grandma with the blue tie)

My Heroic Great Grandpa And The Pre-Titanic SS Norge - Part 2

In my last post I shared about my great-grandfather Eskild Alfred Eskildsen’s attempt to come to America on the SS Norge in 1904. Tragically, it sank in middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Of the nearly 800 passengers on board, he was one of only 160 who survived.

Onboard the Norge

As the SS Norge sank, he managed to swim out to lifeboat #4 which was only just over half full. Read Part 1 for the heroic story of his survival to that point.

Surviving in the lifeboat is another chapter in his remarkable story. They were far out to sea and had no navigation equipment. The men were organized to row in three shifts of four hours at a time. They headed in what they hoped was a north easterly direction, back towards Europe. The others lay on top of each other trying desperately to get warm. It was bitterly cold. No one was dressed for the frigid conditions. Some had no shoes or head covering.

They only had provisions enough for two biscuits and a little water each day. Prayer was very helpful in giving hope and not losing their sanity. Days wore on in monotonous agony. By the fourth day, they had just two drops of water and one biscuit each. On the sixth and seventh days they had absolutely nothing to eat.

There was one infant on the lifeboat, a one year old. Her continuous crying was heart wrenching. Her father, Ole Eid, became frantic; he tried giving her a few drops of saltwater, but that immediately made her condition worse. So in utter desperation he cut his arm and allowed the baby to suck on his blood.

Ole Eid

There was also a teenager on the lifeboat, Rolf Vaagaasar. When he thought he could not bear his thirst any longer, he used his hands to scoop up seawater and drink. But the result was near insanity. His fellow passengers tied him up to keep him from taking his life.

Rolf Vaagaasar

On the seventh day it began raining heavily. The sail was lowered and used to catch a bucket of water. Everyone agreed it was an answer to their prayers.

Here are a couple of lessons I see in this story of survival after the sinking of the Norge:

ONE: Prayer Helps

Communication with God through prayer is a life-sustaining gift from the Almighty.

Of course He is not obligated to grant every request. But even when God determines it is best to do otherwise, prayer gives us a sense of peace in the troubled seas of life.

Recently I read the story of a Christian brain surgeon who courageously began to offer to pray with his patients before their surgeries. He found that when they allowed him to pray, it usually produced remarkable calmness in both the patients and him. I highly recommend his book Gray Matter by David Levy—which you can order in my online bookstore here (under biography)

TWO: I Have Nothing to Complain About

Eddie Rickenbacker had a similar experience of lifeboat survival. In the book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, Dale Carnegie wrote, “I once asked Eddie Rickenbacker what was the biggest lesson he had learned from drifting about with his companions in life rafts for twenty-one days, hopelessly lost in the Pacific. ‘The biggest lesson I learned from that experience,’ he said, ‘was that if you have all the fresh water you want to drink and all the food you want to eat, you ought never to complain about anything.’”

When I start to throw myself a pity party, I often remember the experiences of Eddie Rickenbacker and Eskild Alfred Eskildsen.

Click HERE if you missed Part 1 of this story.

In Part 3 I share the rest of Eskild’s remarkable survival story. Click HERE to read Part 3.