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By Melissa Lauber

 Prayer gives voice to our faith. Even those silent longings of the soul rise with the clamor of newborn stars, sung as hymns to the Creator.

But lately I've noticed that my prayers, and those of many other United Methodists, are becoming tame. That doesn't mean they're not heartfelt and sincere. But there's a fire lacking, like we're somehow missing the urgent certainty that with God all things are possible.

Last fall, at my son's soccer game, I noticed a man in the parking lot ? a referee, who almost secretly between games had placed a mat on the ground and knelt in prayer. He was, I assumed, a Muslim praying, as the principle of salat requires, five times a day.

It was a remarkable witness; to what, I'm not exactly sure. But the thought of one man, striking up a relationship with his God in the midst of all of life's busyness was touching.

Then at Leadership Days in Hagerstown I met Lenzlea F. Mosby Jr.

Mosby, a member of Asbury UMC in Hagerstown, lives each day as if it is an answered prayer. He has good reason.

On Jan 20, 1996, Mosby was stabbed 26 times.

A resident of Hagerstown, he owned a grocery mart in the Johnson Street area, which had a small check-cashing business for people who didn't have bank accounts. On that day nine years ago, a man tried twice to cash an obviously invalid check. Mosby refused.

When the man came back a third time, he approached a pool table and complained that he had inserted his money but no balls came down. Mosby leaned over to check the coin mechanism and the man stabbed him in the neck with a butcher knife, narrowly missing the jugular vein.

'I was dazed, but not completely out,' Mosby said. He stabbed me again and kept stabbing me in the stomach and chest.

Mosby grabbed for the knife and the tendons in his left hand were cut through.
He asked the man, 'Why are you trying to kill me?'

'I gotcha now,' was the only response, repeated over and over.

Mosby collapsed. Two hours later, police found his assailant, Ronnie Green.

Doctors were able to save Mosby's life, but lying in the hospital bed he became intent on revenge.

'I was full of rage,' he said. Satan tempted me and I began to want to put out a contract on my attacker's life. I had nightmares ? (in which I would awaken) with him standing atop me with the butcher's knife; and he would be about to finish the job.'

But friends came to the hospital and prayed with Mosby. One night, after one of them left, the Holy Spirit lingered and turned Mosby's heart toward forgiveness.
In court, Mosby stood and said, 'Ronnie Green, I forgive you.'

The response was astonishing. People from Alaska to Florida read about that response and applauded his action. One person said, 'You must be a Christian in order to do that.'

Even though he was a Christian, Mosby said, 'I was in church, but the church wasn't really in me.'

That too began to change as his prayers continued and the Holy Spirit moved in his life.

Doctors had told him how lucky he was to not be a smoker, given the work his lungs had to do in the three surgeries they performed. Mosby thought about that remark and began to feel guilty about selling cigarettes and alcohol.

Beer, wine and especially cigarettes accounted for half the sales at his store. When he decided to stop selling them, burning his cigarette inventory in a dramatic display, sales soon went down by 75 percent and the community began to boycott the store.

The accolades for his faithfulness were fine, but what Mosby wanted was to be able to keep his business afloat. People called him 'idiot,' and even his son criticized him. He declared bankruptcy and lost the store.

However, Mosby kept praying. He believes the reason God let him live was to help people get over their dependence on deadly chemical substances.

He now teaches smoking cessation classes in United Methodist churches and other locales. At age 70 he is also taking the first steps to be a candidate in the ordained ministry. He realizes that just finishing his bachelor's degree will be a challenge.

'But the point, you see, is to glorify God,' Mosby said. 'What's impossible for man is possible through our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. That's what prayer teaches you.'

That's what prayer teaches you? What an amazing lesson.

In Mosby's story one hears boundless confidence, a broken man who has arisen more than once.

It reminds me of a quote by Methodism's founder, John Wesley: 'My fear is not that our great movement, known as the Methodists, will eventually cease to exist or one day die from the earth. My fear is that our people will become content to live without the fire, the power, the excitement that makes us great.'

Wesley also said, 'Nothing of eternal value is ever done without prayer.' That's enough to bring a person to her knees. And a pastor I know once asked God to make us all 'living prayers.' Nothing tame about that.

So be it. Amen.