I have discovered something about myself in the past two days, well I actually knew before but it was reinforced. I do not function well when I don’t know what is going on. This has, over the years, been a cause of stress when organizations or activities are first getting started, during that bedlam period before people settle into their roles. It is even more of an issue when, as in the current situation, there is a health issue with family members who are a long way away and I am not there with them. It isn’t as if my presence on the scene would be of any help to anyone else other than moral support, but I would still rather be there. I know that things are being well looked after, and if there is anything important happening the news will get to me quickly.
From this remote location (remote from the situation, not from civilization) all I can really do is pray that God will be there for all of my family members, for the health care workers, etc. Why is it, that when God is such a great power and comfort, that it feels like nothing to pray? I wrote it at the beginning of this paragraph, and you hear people say it all the time, “Well, all we can do is pray!” It is almost as if we are saying that all the actually useful things have been done already and as some kind of futile last resort we might try prayer.
Social media has been much maligned for taking people away from real contact with people. I would like to add another perspective. Prayer is far more powerful than most of us, even those who pray regularly, realize. For years my grandmother used to have a prayer list delivered to her by her church, long after she was able to get out to services. Every day she would sit down and purposefully spend some time in prayer for the people on the list, whether she knew them or not. Face Book has in some ways become a global prayer list. Depending on one’s privacy settings, if you post that a loved one is ill all of your friends will know about it, many of them will add your relative to their prayer lists, and their friends may do so as well.
curlingupwithGod 
That is funny that we both wrote about Facebook today!
I do see what you’re saying here, and I think that using social media in this way is great. For me, it’s become a form of enslavement that I want to break free of.
Cathy, you are going through a difficult time, even though surgery and convalescence will hopefully bring everything right. But it is certainly true that we want to be there. You and your family are on my prayer list.
Basil L.