Well, I do. I really do. I probably care too much. I can even prove it, because people ask me all the time, “Why do you care so much about that, Craig?” or “What’s it to you, Hall?”

The biggest problem is the people asking are usually either in government, forcing its lust for power and money against the people, or people who are using the government to force what they want into society. And in my experience, neither of these are good.

So yes, my first reaction is always to give a whole, heaping pile about everything when days like this occur, which is all too often the older I get. Except when I don’t feel like it, which is where I am as I type on a Friday morning. Just picture my 64-year-old backside on my front porch with kids on my lawn if I’m not being very clear.

So, the real question is: “Why don’t I today?” Because when it comes to freedom and truth (in Grand Junction and parts unknown around the globe), that’s a very bad thing. Because that’s why God put me here. Not to spew my truth, but rather to present the Truth and all truth to the folks who care to read – and you should be if you care about truth as well.

But today, it’s just not easy. And the “not caring” today is for a very serious, very big reason.

My friend’s son is lying in a hospital bed in Salt Lake City fighting for his life after a horrific car accident last week in Grand Junction. And there isn’t anything I can do about it except pray. And pray. And then pray again. And to my human side, it kind of sucks.

And before you go all apocalyptic on me about prayer – regardless of which side you are on, the “it’s worthless so don’t do it” side or the “it’s the answer for everything” side – let me just say I don’t give a rat’s backside about the former, and I understand on the latter, no matter how bad I am about doing it consistently. But such is the life of a fallen man.

Now let me also say this about my friend Dusti Rae, whose son Wesley is in the battle for his life. No one I know prays more, not just for herself and her family, but for others.

Heck, she’s said countless prayers over a guy who doesn’t think he’s worth it as he contemplated striking out into the unknown with his time and treasure, risking it all to take a successful twice-a-month paper and insanely go weekly. Yeah, she did, and does, for me. From the first meetings when this was only an idea. Through several meetings with me asking, “Should I do this?” To our first weekly publication printed this past January. And I’m sure up until I am typing today, Dusti Rae has been in the front line of battle as both my and The Business Times’ prayer warrior.

How do I know? I just know. Heck, once she hears about this column, I bet she’ll stop and say another. And Dusti Rae, as always, I can use one!

The hard part for me? I still don’t understand how she does it. She just puts it all in God’s hands, whether it’s The Business Times or something infinitely more important like the life of her son.

When it comes to that kind of faith, I’m just a toddler. And maybe that’s why I’m in the “don’t give a darn” mood. It helps me avoid the other reason I’m here: to serve and pray for others. And when it comes to faith, we’d all do well to have the faith my friend Dusti Rae has. Seriously, her posts and updates on her son’s condition lift me up all while she and her family are living through the worst of it.

So yeah, by the end of this 900-word – insert your adjective for how this reads here – column, I better feel better about where I am, because Dusti Rae’s example of faith and prayer is showing the way.

With that, I’ll lift Wesley up in prayer and ask you to join. I believe he’ll be fully healed between my last keystroke and when the ink hits the paper or the paper hits the racks. I know while the doctors and staff are doing God’s work with Wesley every second, all it takes is God’s touch in one of those seconds to heal. I pray for that touch in Jesus’ name.

I’ve lived through some difficult situations in my life. That’s what life is: living through difficulties, with some being more impactful, challenging and incomprehensible than others. I’ve made it through all of them. But what I didn’t, and don’t most of the time, do is give enough credit to the prayers of those who love me, who may not “love” me but cared to pray for me, along with the prayers of those who don’t know me at all and still prayed.

That’s the power of prayer. It brings forgiveness, grace, peace and healing to all those who say them along with whoever they say them for. I don’t need to understand it, I just need to keep doing it.

In Truth and freedom. And some prayer.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of The Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com