For Vinny: Prayers for a Mourning Friend

When I returned from Florida in January, I was waiting in the airport for my rescheduled flight when I met a man in mourning. Being in motion ourselves seems to allow us opportunities to encounter people in need of a consoling passerby.

Last week, I hurried out of my last class to prepare to catch another flight. I was cutting it close. Twenty steps beyond the classroom door, a young man sat on the floor outside of another classroom, his knees up and his head in his hands. Another student and I paused to check on him, and he explained that he just had a headache. We wished him well and let him be.

Within a minute I was down the stairs and out the building, finding another young man walking along the path in the other direction. If it hadn't been for the first man, crouched down and seemingly vulnerable, I may never have noticed the comparably subtle yet pained expression on this second man's face. Just a step past him by the time it registered, I turned and asked if he was all right.

"You don't even know me, and you care." He crumpled onto the pavement.

My cellphone, i.e. sacred time-keeper, had been in-hand to keep me on track. I put it away in my bag and sat down.

Even in hindsight, I can't tell if this was an experience of the Spirit simply overcoming me to care for another, or one in which I needed to bend my own will and halt my own frenzied spirit to heed a call. I only know that, for that moment, the man was Christ to me.

I won't easily forget his furrowed brow or fallen tears as he told me that he had lost his best friend, Sarah. He couldn't explain much beyond that, and for the most part, we let the silences speak for themselves.

Before we parted, I asked if he would like me to continue to pray for him - for peace, comfort, and strength at this difficult time, I said, when he hesitated. He agreed.

And so, with Vinny on my mind for almost a week now, I'm sharing this with others who might send hope and blessings his way, and into the atmosphere in general. What stays with me most about encountering Vinny is how much he seemed to hope that someone would find him, and how he seemed surprised that someone did.

Please keep Vinny and Sarah and their loved ones in your thoughts and prayers, as well as all those who feel alone or don't know whom to seek out. You never know when you might be the person they're seeking. And if you're struggling with something, anything, I pray you'll also find a listening ear just when you need one, be it God, a friend, a family member, or an unsuspecting passerby.

Peace to you.