Prayer Is Like a Wish

I had dinner with some friends last night: Frank, Noreen, Travis, and Wendy.

While I was talking with Travis, I told him that prayer is like a wish. He looked at me like I was kind of crazy and said, “That’s a bunch of shit.”

The following story is only one example of what I meant by that statement. There are many more.

Years ago, my friend Wales and I would visit his friend Dick, who was dying in hospice. We would sit with him and talk with his family while Dick drifted in and out, struggling to speak and struggling to breathe.

One day, Wales was sitting beside Dick, and I was sitting behind Wales, visiting with the family. I could feel this tremendous love between those two men.

I remember thinking, “God, I wish I had friends like that.”

I went home and told my wife, Joanie, what I had witnessed. I said, “God, Joanie, I wish I had friends like that.”

I sometimes jokingly tell people that Joanie slapped me across the face and said, “Jesus Christ, Jeff—you do have friends like that!”

She was right, of course, but I didn’t fully understand how right she was.

After Dick died, Wales and I became very close. At some point, Wales asked me to be his AA sponsor.

I told him, “I’ll be yours if you’ll be mine.”

That may not be exactly how sponsorship is supposed to work, but it worked for us. It became one of the best friendships I have ever had.

Years later, I was with Wales when he died.

I had just come from an AA meeting and went to see him at the same hospice where Dick had died. I sat beside him and held his hand.

Once again, there were two friends in that hospice room, and once again, there was that tremendous love between them.

Only this time, I was one of the friends.

I had once watched Wales sit beside Dick and thought, “God, I wish I had a friend like that.”

What I couldn’t see then was that Wales would become that friend for me—and perhaps I would become that friend for him.

That is what I meant when I told Travis that prayer is like a wish.

Joanie was out of town for my birthday this year. Travis called and asked if I wanted to go out for dinner on a Thursday night.

Travis would never ask me to go out for dinner on a Thursday night.

I said, “What happened? Did my wife call you?”

He laughed and said, “You’ve got a wife who really loves you.”

I figured Joanie had called him—and I was right.

The people who took me to dinner last night are becoming—or perhaps already have become—friends like Wales and Dick.

Sometimes we say, “God, I wish…”

Then God answers quietly through the people He places in our lives.

And sometimes we don’t recognize the answer until years later.

I thank God every day for my AA friends. I have so many now that it is hard to believe I once wished for even one.