Article June 25, 2001 Issue

PRAYING IS NOT ABOUT JUDGING

Elizabeth Whittlesey

One winter I traveled a long way from home to visit my cousin in Katowice, Poland, an industrial coal-mining city in Eastern Europe. It was very cold there and thoroughly gray with soot. I saw people stumbling in the streets from drunkenness. One woman collapsed at the train station, apparently high on drugs.

I was overwhelmed with sadness. At the same time, I longed to see and feel God's power and presence. There's a promise in the Bible that reads, "If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me" (Ps. 139:11). I prayed a constant prayer to see light.

My cousin and I had agreed to meet each other one evening at a popular bar near her school. I had a few hours to wait for her, and since I didn't feel like being out on the icy streets, I sat in the bar.

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