I Get Email

I get quite a bit of email--not because I'm popular or an important person. Most of it is "junk":

• People trying to get me to buy something (because I previously purchased something from them)
• People wanting to advise me on my stock market investments (like I have a lot of those)
• Offers for discount drugs that may or may not "enhance" my life
• Offers of REALLY cheap/low interest mortgages or loans for incredibly large sums (my house payment is less than $550 a month--I don't think I need their help in that area)
• Offers of LOTS of money just to "use" my American bank account for a transfer of funds from [ fill in foreign country name here ].

You get the idea. I also send a lot of email. I email my mom, sometimes several times each week (I also call her)-- she lives out of state. I send an email "prayer list" to our Sunday School class, prayer requests that were made that week in class. I email a high school friend almost weekly--we exchange funny stuff we find on the internet, etc.

One of the emails I really don't like though, is the "prayer chain/receive a blessing" email. You know the ones. There's a real tear-jerker of a story and then at the end it says something like: "Forward this to 10 people/everyone in your contacts and you'll be blessed." OR "Are you ashamed to forward this email? Jesus said if you are ashamed of me before men, I'll be ashamed of you before the Father."

Now really. Does anyone actually believe that by forwarding an email they will get their wish/prayer answered? Why would the forwarding of an email be the basis for God answering a prayer? And if I don't forward the email, does that really hender God from intervening in the situation and answering the prayer anyway?

I don't think God operates that way, nor is He "bound" by whether we send emails to each other. Just my "soapbox" for the moment.

But just in case...please forward this post to 10 people.