Today, I was
forcibly prayed upon in the coffee corner of Trader Joe's! And yes, I mean the
"ay" type. But now, reflecting back, I clearly see there was a heavy
dose of the “ey” type as well!
I am a praying
person. I do it regularly. I do it with people I know. I do it with people I do
not know. And I have done it in the rain. And I have done it on a train. And I
have done it here and there and I have done it everywhere. However...
I was just
standing there, grinding my own beans (to pregrind or not pregrind is another
passionate debate for another post), when she came out of nowhere, sidled up
beside me and extended her hand saying, “I want to pray for you.” Telling. Not
asking. Her wants. Not mine.
To which I
politely responded, “No thank you. Not right now.”
Then I continued
bagging my beans, assuming those six words were well enough. Clear, yet
cordial, while expressing my personal boundaries for my physical person at that
particular point.
Nope.
She put her hands
on me ANYWAY and went right on ahead in hushed tones with her personal plan of
playing prophet. This was no longer prayer. It stopped being about a higher
power the minute her personal agenda took precedence over anything of mine that
was personal.
Pray for me on
your own time. Fine. Rebuke me. Fine. Stand there in front of me and cry unto
the Lord as loud as you want. It's your right.
(To a certain extent, it is Trader Joe's after all. Private property.) But
don't put your hands on me once I've said no and call it prayer!
Jesus did not
force his physical hands upon those who declined. There is no
passage in scripture calling on people to go forth as the savior’s select S.W.A.T.
team, pouncing on people with a power that evidently extends no further than
their personal palms. It does not help the Christian cause to crusade through
the coffee aisle cornering people for Christ.
The assumption,
that you, a perfect stranger, are the only one with a direct line to the Lord
about someone’s personal life and what they need does damage. It is demeaning.
And humiliating. And belittling. Who exactly is being exalted here? That is not
the spirit moving. That is something else. The ego perhaps? Or maybe it’s just
too much caffeine? In which case, this isn’t the aisle for you.
You stopped seeing
me long before you closed your eyes and opened your mouth with words that
weren’t, “Lord, thank you for this woman's patience. Please give her the wisdom
and strength to handle me in the appropriate manner here shortly”…as they
likely should have been. Because that’s what I was praying. And at least we
could have been on the same page.
Because this was
not okay. To do to your fellow Christians. To do to non-Christians. To do to
anyone.
And so I will be
praying for you…that someone doesn’t “lay hands” on you in kind one of these
times. Especially after you’ve declined.
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