Source
r/Christianity•
lumio

My Sister [Prayer Request]

So my sister has gotten really sick and its been getting worse for the last few months. The doctors don't know what she has just that she is also developing lupus. She has been in a lot of pain every other night and I am really worried for her.

Please for for her healing and also that we would be able to identify what it is.

Thank you all in advance.

Edit: Thank you to all who prayed and for the well wishes.

For those of you who need a little more clarification. We are taking her to doctors and even to a specialist (how we got the lupus diagnosis). We are even taking her for cleansing treatments as the doctor suggested. We are going to try to get her admitted to Standford as well.

Posted Apr 17, 2010, 8:13 AM UTC · edited

442
amykucaReformed•

To all the nay-sayers. Notice that the submitter mentioned both science and prayer. What is wrong with prayers to cover the doctor visits? Did this person ever once mention that the sister will only accept faith healing? No. This is r/Christianity, I don't mind if the atheists on here let us know they won't pray but give best wishes...for the rest of you STOP! This person is looking for support from the community and our petitions to God. Pray or don't but don't be haughty and unsympathetic about it. I pray that the doctors can figure out what is wrong with her and that God heals her...be it through the medicine or on it own or any other way he chooses.

10
JeraJaclyn•

Absolutely, I am praying for you and your sister.

8
EndemoniadaAtheist•

I'm not going to pray, as I don't believe there's any reason to. Do, however, know that I hope your sister gets better, and that her doctors identify her illness and have a cure for it. Give her my best wishes.

7
[deleted]•

huh?

-2
cmotdibblerAtheist•

If the local doctors can't find out what is wrong your sister then your time would be better spent, not on your knees praying but getting her to a research hospital (often near a large university) that specializes in lupus. Like Endemoniada, I sincerely hope there is some treatment available for your sister.

4
Rostin•

If the local doctors can't find out what is wrong your sister, try to find a research hospital (often near a large university) that specializes in lupus. Like Endemoniada, I sincerely hope there is some treatment available for your sister.

When I re-write it that way, it sounds like you actually hope that his sister gets better.

But your way is ok, too, I guess. I can see how using this guy's pain and plea for compassion and comfort as an opportunity to win a tiny internet victory in the war between Science and Religion, those two diametrically opposed and utterly non-overlapping approaches to confronting this problem personally, is also important.

3
cmotdibblerAtheist•

Is it so hard to believe that an atheist hopes that the guy's sister feels better. He looked to the internet for a solution to his sister's ailment, possibly expecting "prayer circles", I offered a different path that may lead to a possible solution.

-1
Rostin•

I don't doubt that you care, but I think that might have been communicated a little more effectively and meaningfully without the cheap shot. And I do think it was a cheap shot, unless you honestly think that his sister is receiving substandard care because he spends some of his time praying for her.

4
cmotdibblerAtheist•

I'm not as cynical as you. There are well documented accounts in the media about people who use prayer over medical treatment. Not all physicians have the expertise and training to treat something like lupus. Hence, I told him to his time on the internet was better spent consulting research hospitals rather than asking for prayers. And sorry but in my opinion, prayer is just talking to yourself.

-2
crazybones•

No you didn't. You saw an opportunity to make a smartass point against a worried person who happens to be a Christian and so further your narrow-minded agenda. Never mind that this is a human being worried about his sister, you just plowed on ahead. Rostin's rewriting of your comment was how you should have expressed it in the first place.

2
[deleted]•

That's called a false constraint. Prayer takes very little time. Take her to a good hospital and pray. Why would you think there is only time to do one or the other?

3
Flemlord•

US News & World Report has an annual ranking of US hospitals by specialty. I've used it before to locate the best treatment for a family member with heart problems.

http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals

1
spike00•

If you knew the power of prayer, and the power and compassion of the God who hears prayer, you would not say that. I believe wholeheartedly in the healing power of doctors, but nothing can compare to the healing power of prayer

-1
cmotdibblerAtheist•

I'll take antibiotics and science-based medicine over prayer and the "compassion of god" every time. I've seen several people at my wife's church (I go weekly, for 20 years BTW) in fervent prayer over their cancer... they were all dead before age 45. Another guy at the church is missing a hand, why won't god heal him?

6
[deleted]•

Wow, you are the first person I have ever heard of who has answered a question even remotely similar to this one. I will now begin questioning my faith and end up a snarky 30 year old Richard Dawkins fanatic.

1
cmotdibblerAtheist•

I'm younger than Dawkins but old enough to know that he merely popularizes arguments that have been around for a long time.

1
moonflower•

you think the people are wasting their time praying, and yet you go to church every week, and it is making you bitter and contemptuous ... so instead of wasting your time at church, why don't you take your own advice and spend that time doing something to help yourself get out of the situation which is making you so bitter and resentful?

there are different kinds of health; there is physical health, there is mental health, there is spiritual health, and your spiritual health needs some attention

-1
jowblob•

If solutions exist here and now, why only pray about it? Why not do both?

I hooked up with a girl that I shouldn't have (she was taken, I didn't care and was being selfish). A few days later, I got a lesion on my lip. I freaked out because it looked like oral herpes, and I had never gotten sores on my lip before, even if I got cold sores in my gums.

A month later, same place, same lesion. I googled pics, typing in "oral herpes" in the query, and search results looked frighteningly similar to the one on my lip.

I went to my dentist. He saw the sore, the crust, the scabbing, and said I have HSV-1, that it's not that bad, that I might not have got it from the girl I hooked up with, that it is contagious, that its for life, that it can be contained.

But I still freaked out.

I did some soul-searching, and I prayed. Essentially, I saw my selfish actions as having potentially wide-spreading consequences far beyond me and myself. My actions don't just effect me; they ripple through to all that are close and dear to me. I was pretty devastated that I've been living like this for so long. And I accepted whatever consequences would ensue from my actions, be it having to live with HSV-1 (which again, isn't that big of a deal, but still...), and the emotional impression that this experience has left on me. I repented from my heart (rather than wanting to just get rid of my negative consequence without knowing where it was coming from), and was grateful for the experience, because it changed the way I see things, even if my old ways are still alive and kicking in me.

I went to two other STD clinics, got tested, asked a whole bunch of questions, found out a lot of information, and was grateful for this experience as well, as I've gained a deeper understanding about STDs in general. And that I can no longer judge those with STDs, as I used to deep down inside.

A week later, I got back my results, and low and behold, no HSV-1 or HSV-2.

Call this a miracle. Call it coincidence. Call it a latent outbreak of cold sores. Or call bullshit on it.

Whatever this experience is, I'm not hung-up on whether it was or wasn't a miracle. But this experience changed my perspective.

I did everything in my power to find out what was going on, to understand it through my own capacities, and to do what I could about it. Even accept it as a lifelong and containable virus in me. But I also prayed, and dug deep through the trenches of shit in my brain.

Why not do both? Why limit our options to just prayer or just medicine?

I feel like doing so is an attempt to prove something to an invisible audience, maybe to ourselves, that God is real, that He can only be real through our boxed attempts to summon Him into an event that can be tackled from a much broader, wider, and non-expectant stance.

Just my experience and two cents.

EDIT

I'm not so good at prayer, but I'll throw in a quick one for your sister. I hope you guys can find the help you need.

6
spike00•

Hey! Thanks for being candid and sharing your experience!

I agree that both prayer and medicine are important. I was just trying to prove a point to the person who said the original posters time would be better spent not praying on his knees, but rather appealing to a doctor only for healing.

2
jowblob•

Maybe we're saying the same thing :)

1
[deleted]•

Why limit our options to just prayer or just medicine?

Because prayer doesn't work.

It's like saying 'Why limit our options to just making animal sacrifices or just medicine?'

'Why limit our options to just wearing lucky horseshoes or just medicine?'

2
jowblob•

Maybe one day, everyone will think like you do, and you will win at life.

1
IRBMeAtheist•

Look at the picture in this news article. Look at her face, then tell me that again in all seriousness.

2
spike00•

Thats a very sad story. I would have taken the girl to a doctor, AND prayed. In fact, the doctor would have been the answer to her mothers prayers, but she was too stubborn see this. Its a tragedy, to be sure. I even agree with the charges of homicide.

But let me be clear. The power of prayer heals people everyday, be it through a doctor, medicine, or miracle.

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IRBMeAtheist•

In fact, the doctor would have been the answer to her mothers prayers, but she was too stubborn see this.

Then it wouldn't be the healing power of prayer, would it? It would be the healing power of the modern medical practices, tools and techniques used by the doctors. They'll do the same job whether you pray or not.

But let me be clear. The power of prayer heals people everyday, be it through a doctor, medicine, or miracle.

I like how you attribute 2/3 of that to modern medicine, in a completely unverifiable yet unfalsifiable way, and the other 1/3 to something that occurs incredibly infrequently and for which there is nothing more than anecdotal evidence as proof, but which also can't be falsified.

Although, does modern medicine actually work better when prayer is applied? Studies have shown that no, no it doesn't.

3
slaurChristian (Alpha & Omega)•

I have prayed for her and strength for your family. I look forward to a post in the future bearing good news.

4
teawarEastern Orthodox•

I too will pray for you.

Lord, have mercy.

4
supermeerkat•

Prayer doesn't heal the sick, study finds.

-6
aletheiaEastern Orthodox•

You sir or madam have failed at compassion

2
implausibleusername•

Yup, I'd quite like to have a conversation about this, but this thread doesn't seem to be the right place. So I've started a new one.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/bs9h6/why_pray_for_other_people/

1
supermeerkat•

But not given false hope, though.

0