It's a Simple Request...

... but sometimes it's the simple things that are hardest to do. Which is why it has taken me until now to ask, even though I've wanted to do so for hours.

Would you be too terribly offended, Internet Reader, if I asked you for your prayers? These days, everybody is so touchy about political correctness and where religion belongs and not offending anyone and not doing ANYTHING for fear of stepping on someone's toes. But, in a case like this, I feel that not doing anything is worse than offending the random reader. I'm sorry, but it's true; I don't mean to be rude, but in a case like this, I feel like I should be able to ask you what I please. I mean, it's not like I'm forcing you to do anything; it's just a simple request.

I simply ask you to pray.

Earlier today (well, technically, yesterday, because it's now past midnight, but it still feels like today because I haven't been able to sleep) a kid at my high school caught on fire.

Not one of those little, oops-I-caught-my-sleeve-on-fire-in-a-bunsen-burner-and-singed-all-the-hairs-off-my-arm-and-ruined-my-favorite-shirt-but-I'm-fine fires. That wouldn't cause our entire school to go on lockdown. Teachers wouldn't be freaking out, crying-in-the-hallways freaking out, because of that.

I'm talking human-torch-style caught on fire. Burnt-beyond-recognition type of fire. The kind of fire that leaves 70% of your body covered in critical burns, so that you have to be airlifted to a burn center hours away in an entirely different state because you've been hurt so bad.

And that's why I ask you to pray. Pray for him, because he is hurt that bad. Because he did catch on fire that way. And pray for us, my campus, my school, my teachers, my peers. Because some of us saw that; we saw him walking, burning; we heard him and then had to wait hours to find out what had happened, what his condition was, who he was. A junior. Someone we all know. Someone who now is lucky that he was able to walk and talk as they put him in the ambulance. One who know is hopefully safe in a hospital bed, with the best of doctors caring for him, working his way to recovery.

We still don't know how it happened. Why it happened. How he's doing now.

We do know that he came from the parking lot of our school, that his car was on fire; there was too much smoke for just him. That all our thoughts and prayers and support go out to him and his family, by blood and by friendship; that we who saw him as others tried to help will support each other, because there are just some things that you never learn to unsee, and a classmate lit up like a movie stunt-man staggering outside your classroom window is definitely one of them.

We know that my school will and is supporting everyone who needs it. We're raising money to help his family with the medical bills. We're wearing white tomorrow. We're wearing red the day after. We prayed today; we prayed so much today.

So please, join us. Just keep him in your thoughts, and wish him on to full recovery. Include him in your prayers. Wear white tomorrow (today, technically) and red the day after.

One boombox can change the world, kid. My thoughts and prayers are with you.