Years ago I traveled though Eastern Europe. Out of curiosity, I ducked into a few churches. The communist leaders in this block sealed off most houses of worship and neglected those left open. Doors swung in the wind and leaves littered the floor. However, at the front of every church an old woman or two knelt in prayer.
As a young missionary I despaired and asked the Lord, is this all that’s left of your followers? Only a few toothless women muttering desperate prayers in a beat-down church?
Forty years later, I understand the power of old women muttering prayers.
I suppose many whispered the words of David, who also prayed during a desperate time, when the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.
Old women pray because they understand nothing else works. Turning the hearts of family, friends, neighbors and nations requires God to move. Divine acts all. Over the years we work and plead and shake, but still we wait. Old knees understand and bend to the Lord more quickly.
As I finally join those old women in prayer, I enter into their hope as well. David closed his psalm with this promise, one I’ve clung to in many difficult periods in my life, and now see afresh:
I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
In the years following my visit the monolithic, unassailable system of communism collapsed. Spiritual awakenings spread through country after country. New converts, and freshly-freed old ones, crowded those old women in the pews. They all enjoyed the goodness of the Lord.
Embrace the wisdom of the babushkas. Be strong. Take heart. Pray and wait for the Lord.
Psalm 27 in reading the Bible in 2023
Photo by Katarzyna Biernaciak
Really appreciated this one, Dave! I’m going to be an old woman one day! Hopefully one who prays