Everybody, pray for MJ. Pray to whatever God, figurehead, higher power, or deity that you believe in. That's all I wanted to say.
Sorry, I'm rather out of the loop.
Did something happen to him? Is he unwell?
Or is this more a general 'keep up the good work' sort of prayer?
Either way, blessed be, and I will definitely keep him in my prayers.
No, I just felt that we should all pray for our mentor and friend. That's pretty much it.
The problem is that in addition to being a concerned friend, John is a nosey prying cuss who manages to discover private information about personal problems, and then worries and wants to do something, and can't do anything and knows that spreading information will make my situation worse, so he asks for these very vague prayer requests.
I appreciate the concern and the support and the encouragement. I also appreciate being able to keep private matters private, to the degree that a somewhat "public person" can do so, in response to the privacy preferences of family, friends, and co-workers who are not "public persons" and would prefer not to be.
Were it entirely up to me, I would probably be a lot more glib about my problems than I am; but no one is so isolated that his life is not also someone else's life, and if that someone else does not wish for the world to know the details, respect requires keeping them hushed.
For what it's worth, my life usually has some disaster on the periphery, at least, and sometimes these move toward the center. Part of that is due to the number of crisis-prone people we have collected in our lives whose crises become ours; part of it is that we're not particularly good at dealing with the complications in life and managing our assets and liabilities, which is a good way to find yourself in crisis. At the moment, there are several crises nearer the center. The Lord is good, though, and is providing answers.
Thank you.
--M. J. Young
Geeze MJ, I never would have thought that asking people to pray for you would piss you off.
I didn't say that it would "piss me off".
I did say that publishing to the world that I'm having problems so that they will either wonder or guess what those are complicates my situation most of the time.
Not everyone who reads posts on this site is my friend, and not all who are my friends will respond to such news in a helpful manner.
I appreciate that you are concerned and that you are trying to find ways to help; and I certainly appreciate that asking people to pray for me will help. However, publicizing that I am having problems which I am not discussing publicly makes my life more difficult, and also puts you on the list of people who cannot be trusted to keep confidences confident. Saying, "I know something about this I can't share with anyone" (which is what these prayer requests really say) is saying that there is something to know, and saying that I've not confided in others what I have confided in you.
If you know something about me, my family, my business, which you know is not public knowledge, please do not advertise that you have such private information. My ability to confide in people is dependent on their ability to hide the fact that they are in my confidence.
In the end, it has nothing to do with whether I am "pissed off" and everything to do with whether I am able to trust that if I tell you something when you ask you will keep it so secret that no one will suspect that you ever asked. As far as everyone who posts regularly on this board is concerned, they are all my friends; and while it certainly is a fiction that they are all equally my friends, it is a fiction that needs to be maintained if this board is to continue running as a place where we can interact.
Thank you.
--M. J. Young
Next time you want to get prayers for someone without breaking a confidence, may I suggest trying your church (or other group not connected to Gaming Outpost and don't know M.J.)? That way you can say, "Please pray for my friend Mark; he's going through a rough time right now." to people who don't know him and don't care to know what that "rough time" consists of, and who won't feel slighted that they aren't given more detail.
Though, you do say "whatever god you believe in," so maybe you don't have one (a church, I mean)? In the absence of a group you can ask to pray for someone, though, maybe ask one good friend (again, outside this particular social circle).
Since it's been requested, I have said a prayer for M.J. God watch over you and yours, M.J.
Kelly
I think A1Nut phrased it that way out of respect for myself and any of our other members who don't follow the God of Abraham but who are otherwise spiritual people (and also happen to read just about anything posted on here).
Yeah, Osevens hit the nail right between the eyes. I didn't want anyone to be left out of that, because they are of a different faith than myself.