An upsetting day at work drove me to tears. I needed someone to talk to...

I stormed out of my office to my car, climbed in and slammed the door. I sat there shaking, feeling grieved and anguished. I’d just had a terrible confrontation with a dear friend.

It didn’t matter who was right or wrong, the whole episode had just blown up more than it ever had to. Driving home in tears, I tried to calm down. I attempted to pray, but I couldn’t clear my mind. I needed my prayer partner.

“Lord, I need someone to talk with, someone who can pray with me!” I said aloud. Just as I finished saying those words, my cell phone rang. It was a new phone and I didn’t have a hands-free headset for it, so I ignored it. The phone rang a second time.

Again I ignored it, instead focusing on the rush hour traffic. But when it rang a third time, I pulled off the road onto the shoulder and answered it. “Jim?” a female voice said. I recognized it immediately as Louise.

She and her husband, Jim, are close friends of mine. “No,” I said. “This isn’t Jim. Louise, it’s me, Sharon.” “No,” she insisted, “I’m trying to get hold of Jim. I’ve called him three times.”

“You’ve called me three times,” I said. “But, Sharon,” she said, “I don’t even have your new cell phone number.” Louise had dialled her husband’s number from her home phone and somehow had reached me instead.

And not a moment too soon. We prayed together and all my anger, all my stress just melted away. You see, Louise is not only my friend… she’s my prayer partner.