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The Empty
Chair!
A man's daughter
had asked
the local
minister to come and
pray with her
father. When the
minister
arrived, he found the man
lying in bed
with his head propped
up on two
pillows. An empty chair
sat beside his
bed. The minister
assumed that the
old fellow had
been informed of
his visit. "I guess
you were
expecting me," he said.
"No, who are
you?" said the father.
The minister
told him his name
and then
remarked, "I see the empty
chair; I
figured you knew I was
going to show
up."
"Oh yeah, the
chair," said the
bedridden man.
"Would you mind
closing the
door?"
Puzzled, the
minister shut the door.
"I have never
told anyone this, not
even my
daughter," said the man.
But all of my
life I have never known
how to pray. At
church I used to hear
the pastor talk
about prayer, but it
went right over
my head."
"I abandoned any
attempt at prayer,"
the old man
continued, "until one day
about four years
ago my best friend
said to me,
"Johnny, prayer is just a
simple matter of
having a conversation
with Jesus. Here
is what I suggest."
"Sit down in a
chair; place an empty
chair in front
of you, and in faith see
Jesus on the
chair. It's not spooky
because he
promised, "I'll be with
you always."
"Then just speak to
him in the same
way you're doing
with me right
now."
"So, I
tried it and I've liked it so
much that I do
it a couple of hours
every day. I'm
careful though. If my
daughter saw me
talking to an
empty chair,
she'd either have a
nervous
breakdown or send me off
to the funny
farm."
The minister was
deeply moved by
the story and
encouraged the old
man to continue
on the journey.
Then he
prayed with him, anointed
him with oil,
and returned to the church.
Two nights later
the daughter called
to tell the
minister that her daddy
had died that
afternoon. "Did he die
in peace?" he
asked.
"Yes, when I
left the house about
two o' clock, he
called me over to
his bedside,
told me he loved me
and kissed me on
the cheek.
When I got back
from the store
an hour later, I
found him dead.
But there was
something strange
about his death.
Apparently, just
before Daddy
died, he leaned over
and rested his
head on the chair
beside the bed.
What do you
make of that?"
The minister
wiped a tear from
his eye and
said,
"I wish we could
all go like that."
Author
Unknown
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