"Writing Letters to God"
by Tom Goodman
November 8, 2006

A distraught teen sought forgiveness for an abortion.  An unwed mother wanted God to make the baby’s father marry her.  A man asked to win the lottery—twice.

These were the requests in letters written to God.  The letters—about 300 in all—were sent to a New Jersey minister across the last thirty years.  They were recently found in the ocean, most of them unopened.

Bill Lacovara found them while fishing last month with his son.  He spotted a flowered plastic shopping bag and waded out to retrieve it.  “There are hundreds of lives here,” he said, showing reporters the dried-out letters.  “A lot of struggle, all washed up on the beach.”

The letters had been sent to Pastor Grady Cooper to be placed on a church’s altar and prayed over.  Cooper died two years ago at the age of 79, and someone probably disposed of the letters when they were cleaning out his belongings.  “I guess rather than just throw them in the garbage, maybe they thought they'd set them out to sea to bless these people,” Lacovara said.

Did the pastor or congregation ever pray over the letters?  Were the letters ceremoniously sent to sea or unceremoniously thrown away?

We may never know what people thought of the letters, but we know what God thought of them.  When the Apostle John described his vision of the heavenly worship service in Revelation 4-5, he said, “The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb.  Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (5:8).

Notice what value is placed on our prayers:  They are carried in golden bowls by those closest to God’s throne, and our prayers circle the Lord like perfumed clouds of incense.

Take heart and return to your prayers.  No matter the value people put on them here, God listens.

—Tom


Important Notes

Sermon Series.  We have one more week in the Apostles Creed.  This week, read chapters 23-25 of The Anchor Course.  To catch up with the series, listen online (iTunes or website).  To learn more about the book that accompanies this sermon series, read the introduction by clicking here or check out the website at www.AnchorCourse.org.  Remember:  Everyone who attends gets a free copy of the book.  Also, with Christmas approaching, do you need additional copies of The Anchor Course for gift-giving?  You can purchase additional copies for $13 in the lobby on Sundays or in the office during the week.  The price we’re currently charging is an introductory price, so get your additional copies now.

Get an iMix of Praise Music!  Here's how to get more familiar with the worship music in the Bold service and enjoy it throughout the week.  Get an "iMix" at iTunes called "Hillcrest Bold Gold (Volume 1)."  By clicking on the hyperlink, you will find contemporary recording artists singing ten songs that our Hillcrest Praise Band leads us to sing.  If you don't have iTunes on your computer, when you click Hillcrest Bold Gold (Volume 1), you will be directed to download your free copy of iTunes.  Once you have the program on your computer, you can listen to 30-second clips of the 10 songs in the iMix.  You can then choose to download the entire mix for $9.90 or select individual songs from the mix for $.99 each.  You don't need an iPod to enjoy songs downloaded on iTunes.  Even without an iPod, you can listen to the songs on your computer, or you can burn audio CDs from iTunes if you have a CD burner connected to your computer.  We'll create a "Hillcrest Bold Gold (Volume 2)" iMix in a few weeks. Send me your suggestions about what you want on it.

Links to Your World

While Kinky Friedman wants to be the Good Shepherd for Texas, incumbent Governor Rick Perry is taking heat for pointing people to the real Good Shepherd.  See my reaction here.