The Nurse Who Wouldn't Stop Praying

In 2019, a hospice nurse named Margaret Ajagu in Birmingham, England, was called into her supervisor's office and handed a formal warning. A family had not complained — they had written a thank-you letter describing how Margaret quietly prayed with their dying father when he asked her to. But the policy was clear: staff were not to initiate or participate in religious expression with patients. Margaret was told to stop.

She didn't stop.

When asked why she continued, Margaret didn't argue policy or threaten a lawsuit. She simply said, "When a dying man reaches for your hand and asks you to pray, you pray. I answer to someone higher than this office."

She was suspended. Then reinstated after public outcry. But what stayed with people wasn't the controversy — it was the calm certainty in her voice. She wasn't being defiant for the sake of rebellion. She had weighed two authorities and chosen the greater one.

That is exactly the posture Peter and the apostles took before the Sanhedrin. Hauled in, warned, threatened — and utterly unmoved. "We must obey God rather than human beings." This wasn't reckless defiance. It was the settled conviction of people who had witnessed the risen Christ and could no more stay silent than they could stop breathing. When the Almighty speaks, every other voice becomes a suggestion.