Faith and an 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 impending visit. "I
guess you were expecting me," he
said.
"No, who are you? said the father.
"I'm the new minister at your
church,"
he replied. "When I saw 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 preacher talk about prayer,
but
it went right over my head." "I
abandoned any attempt at prayer,"
the
old man continued, "until one day
about
four years ago my best friend said
to
me, 'Joe, 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 and listen 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 guy to
continue on the journey. Then he
prayed
with him and returned to the church
building.
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 all could go that
way."
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