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PRAY FOR HAMISH HARDING AND HIS FAMILY
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, June 20, 2023 – I do text editing and proofreading for my daily bread (Paul fixed tents; I fix tenses lol groan).
One of my clients years ago was a search and rescue (SAR) helicopter pilot who wrote articles for military journals about his rescues. It was fascinating to read his “insider scoops” about his missions. Many of the rescues were of people who’d done things they shouldn’t have done, such as gone skiing in locations that were off-limits due to avalanche dangers or headed out to sea in an approaching storm in a flimsy boat. Still, as a SAR operative, my client always had to put his personal feelings aside about the foolhardiness of the people he was attempting to rescue. He had to put his personal feelings aside and conduct a rescue mission, even if he personally believed it was a lost cause and even if it meant he had to put himself in harm’s way. Regardless of his personal opinions on the matter, he had to conduct a rescue mission. That was his job.
There’s no shortage of people doing things they’ve been warned not to do who then get themselves in a pickle they need rescuing from. But the time of rescue efforts is the not the time for giving up hope or for wagging your finger or for saying “I told you so.” The time of rescue efforts is to do everything in your power to bring the distressed people to safety. After they’re safe, then you can lecture them.
I mention this because a big part of our job as born-again believers is to pray for people. If people request our prayers, we pray for them. Our prayers are our spiritual SAR. We offer our prayers regardless of our personal feelings about the people who’ve asked for them or the reason they’ve asked for them. When people ask for our prayers, we go into spiritual SAR mode and conduct the requested mission.
As of the time of writing this article, a billionaire adventurer has gone missing during a trip in a submersible to the Titanic wreck in the North Atlantic. His family has requested prayers. And because his family has requested prayers, we need to pray for the safe rescue of the billionaire and everyone else on board the submersible. Regardless of our personal feelings about the man’s adventures (or now misadventures), we need to pray for him. That’s our job.
So please pray for him. The man’s name is Hamish Harding. Please pray for Hamish Harding, at the request of his family. Please pray for his safe rescue and the safe rescue of all those on board the Titan.
“Hamish Harding’s stepson, Brian Szasz, confirmed his stepfather was on board the vessel when it went missing.
“‘Hamish Harding, my step father, has gone missing on submarine. Thoughts and prayers,’ he wrote on Facebook, sharing family photos and articles.
“‘Thoughts and prayers for my Mom and Hamish Harding,’ he added.
“In a follow-up post, he added: ‘Thoughts and prayers for my stepfather Hamish Harding as his submarine has gone missing exploring Titanic. Search and rescue mission is underway.’“
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tldr: When people ask for your prayers, you give them your prayers.
That’s a non-negotiable request.
Regardless of your personal feelings towards the people making the request or the reason for their request, you pray for them. You ask God to help them.
That is your duty as a Christian.
If you choose not to do your duty, you’ll have God to answer to.
WHO’S YOUR DADDY?
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 22, 2016 – The “Christian family” is a lie. Unlike criminal organizations such as the mafia, televangelists, and the Rothschild banking monopoly, Jesus didn’t choose relatives as his fellow laborers. He chose strangers whose sole qualifications were that they willingly chose to do God’s will, and were willing to follow him as the Messiah.
As born-agains, our real family is no longer the people we grew up with; our real family is those who do God’s will. That doesn’t mean that we should shun our relatives if they’re not born again; it just means we shouldn’t spend any more or any less time with them than we would with anyone else who doesn’t do God’s will. As born-agains, we are no longer bound by blood or culture. These are not the ties that bind us. We are bound to God spiritually as his adoptive children and to Jesus as sibling, follower, and friend. These are the primary relationships that define us, not our blood or culture.
Jesus was not a fan of family gatherings. In fact, other than for a few quick stopovers in Nazareth, he generally avoided his relatives after he started his ministry work. We need to stare that fact straight in the face. Jesus didn’t get along with his family after he “came out” as the Messiah. His mother thought he was crazy, and his brother James thought he was just playing at being a prophet. Jesus said our worst enemies will be those under our own roof, and his disbelieving family proved him right. Only after his crucifixion did his mother and brother come round and acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah.
The truth about Jesus’ rocky relationship with his relatives is rarely spoken about in polite Christian circles. Ministers like to wax poetic over the ‘holy family’ and urge their parishioners to mold their families after the supposed Christian model of a strong father, a supportive mother, and polite obedient children. But this model is not based on the New Testament. Jesus said that he came to drive a sword between blood relatives and their in-laws, and to turn family members against each other. He didn’t come to draw people closer to each other; he came to draw people closer to God. He also said that if you want to please your relatives more than you want to do God’s will, then you’re not worthy of being his follower and ultimately not worthy of Heaven.
At the same time, Jesus warned us not to marry. Paul reiterated the warning, saying that spouses are usually more interested in pleasing each other than in pleasing God. They also tend to lean on each other rather than to lean on God. That’s why Jesus urged his followers not to marry, and if they were married, to leave their spouse to follow him. All his married disciples left their wives. They didn’t divorce them; they simply lived separately from them and no longer had intimate relations with them.
This is another major fact that is rarely mentioned in polite Christian circles, especially by joined-at-the-hip televangelist husband and wife duos. Jesus and his followers lived celibate, making “eunuchs” of themselves for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake.
We are expected to do the same.
That’s right, folks – no nooky. We’re to live celibate not like Catholic priests but celibate like Jesus.
Genuine celibacy comes not from our own efforts, but from God. It’s a spiritual gift that God readily gives anyone who asks for it.
The notion of a strong patriarch and a supportive matriarch surrounded by a gaggle of offspring is Old Testament. As born-agains, we follow the example that Jesus set in the New Testament by living celibate and seeing our real family as those who choose to do God’s will.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 