Grandpa's Prayer: The Rest of the Story

O.W. Harer pictured with the author

Grandpa was a student of God’s Word and a respected Bible teacher in our community. He left me a legacy of faith summed up in his rhetorical question to a group of high school students, “HE hasn’t failed me yet; do you think HE ever will?” Grandpa cared about those students and had taught most of them in the public school ministry he carried on for years.

In the 70’s someone got the idea of building a huge lounge in our little Blue Ridge community and dubbing it the Bunny Lounge. It dominated the landscape and was just about a mile from the high school. Grandpa didn’t like it! One particularly cantankerous doctor asked him at the time if he would pay the cover charge to get into the Bunny Lounge. His reply, “I would pay to get out.”

It was in these days that Grandpa expressed to the church his concern about the lounge and its impact on our community and our young people. A couple attending that morning recalls that during his prayer Grandpa prayed specifically that the business would “fail.” It took a little while, but the Bunny Lounge did fail. The Outer Space Connection took its place, and it failed too. So did Caesar’s Palace and the Music Barn. Over time in the framework of God’s handling of things, this couple would drive by, see a failed business, and the husband would comment, “God still answers prayer.”

Over twenty-five years later the lounge was purchased and converted into a business that manufactures splash guards for 18 wheelers. It’s owned by a Christian family who just recently erected a cross on the property with the words “Risen Savior” and “Jesus Saves.” A fine testimony that we should never ever underestimate the prayer of a righteous man. And as Paul Harvey would say, now you know the rest of the story.