After arriving at work this morning, I discovered that one of our friends (the husband of a colleague) collapsed at home yesterday evening and is in hospital unconscious. I know nothing more at the moment.
It’s very difficult to concentrate on anything. Many of the people I work with are religious, and have a very strong faith - whereas I am perhaps the odd one out, in that I have no firm beliefs or faith. An email went around this morning asking that people pray for, or think of the couple during the day. A part of me wants to react to that email - to go on the attack about the uselessness of praying (as I perceive it) - and another part of me knows that these people have their own faith, and I respect them and their beliefs.
The rational side of my mind is saying “what will happen will happen”, and the “on the fence” side of my mind is saying “perhaps I should pray - something along the lines of ‘if there is a God up there, pull your finger out for once’”.
It’s funny - I had a conversation about this with a colleague a few weeks ago. Although he does a lot of work for the church - running Bible study groups and so on, he ended up agreeing with my view that if you have no faith, you are a stronger person - because you have to be. You have no parachute to fall into. Nothing to hide behind.