I often get asked, “How do you do what you do? All that flying and traveling and going so many places? Don’t you get tired?” The easy answer is “Yes, I get tired.” But the deeper answer to all the questions has struck me forcibly this week.
How do we do this? One word. Prayer. Oh, and one more word. Technology.
Not our prayer, though of course we too pray. It’s the prayer of God’s people that we request and receive. The women like Katherine who toddled up to me last weekend at a meeting in Lancaster with a huge smile. My husband says she was old when she ran his middle-school camps, so who knows how old she is now. But Katherine is a warrior who prays. “Oh, I was hoping you would be here,” she said. “I love getting your email and I pray you through.” Then she proceeded to ask specific questions about our recent travel to Asia. Who said older people can’t enjoy the internet?
Tuesday it was a note from Kay telling me that she and her sister are praying for us this week. “Just love having the news regularly. We go everywhere with you.” Then there’s Jo who “stalks” us on Facebook and travels the world with us even though she doesn’t like to fly. Wednesday night it was Marian, Sam, Jay, Gladys, and a crew of others who wanted to ask questions because they read, and then, they pray.
There’s no magic to this. No formulas. No incantations. No hocus pocus. Prayer does not change the plans of God, but I firmly believe that prayer pulls us alongside God’s will and helps us understand His plans.
Thursday night I sat in the middle of hundreds of students at the end of several days of concentrated focus on God’s heart for the world. We had requested prayer for this week, for these students, for our interaction with them. God worked in their hearts and all of us who were there to represent the world had deep and frequent conversations with students seriously asking how to know what God wanted in their lives.
The speaker asked those who had done some “business with God” this week to come forward. He wasn’t asking for commitment to overseas service, but for commitment to follow the heart of God -- wherever that led. Probably half the students streamed to the front and knelt together across the front.
Later they stood in silent lines, moving forward to serve themselves in communion. At the close, they gathered around the speaker and his wife to pray for them as they prepare to return to Europe.
Most of these students will not serve overseas as missionaries, but they will be senders. They will be the prayer warriors of a distant generation. They will toddle up to younger missionaries in 60 or 70 years and tell them how much they enjoy whatever communication they get at that point in time. Maybe they will be able to virtually visit “their missionaries” on the screen, better than Skype and all we have now. I don’t know what it will look like, but prayer has always moved people to follow the heart of God. The Apostle Paul asked for it and got it from his friends too.
Technology just makes it happen faster, and brings huge blessings both directions – to the warriors at home and the warriors on the front line.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
White space
Returning from Asia a few weeks ago, a friend in Japan encouraged me to “get some white space” in my life. As fellow publications writers and editors, she and I appreciate white space on a page. White space in life is harder, but without it, the spirit, mind, and body collapse into chaos.
Today is a white space day.
The alarm hasn’t gone off yet when I rise in the dark at 6:45, but I’m done sleeping. For me, the first order of life is coffee, and the kitchen is my favorite spot in the house. However, last night we found evidence that we’d been gone too much and we set a mousetrap under the sink. I check it first thing and yes, there's small mouse in trap. The house is ours again.
Coffee started, I create a simple breakfast before calling the man of the house to come. His first order of business is to dispose of the mouse. It’s not that I’m afraid of mice but if this is my white space day, he can deal with disposal of mice. He’s also working at home today so we sit at the counter talking for a time over the second cup of coffee, then reading in two different directions. I’m in 1 Peter this week, and he appears to be in Ecclesiastes.
The next white activity is shoveling a few inches off the driveway. Perhaps it’s a strange affection but I love shoveling fresh snow on a cold morning. There’s a rhythm to plowing back and forth across the drive that is both relaxing and exhilarating.
A white space day includes the normal drill of life – laundry, cleaning, catching up on email, but today I take time to browse a store in search of a few specific items for travel next month. I hate shopping, but today I wander, try things on, text the Dragon with a question about a sweater she might like, retrace my steps, chat with the woman hanging shirts. Next is the library to drop off books. Two weeks ago I actually sat with a cup of coffee in a corner among the stacks, book in hand. A good white space activity, but today I don’t need books so I go on to a second store where again I do more than search, grab, and fly. There is absolutely no one here today and it’s fun to just explore. Maybe the sheets of white fluff falling outside have discouraged the crowds, or maybe I’ve never been here on a Tuesday morning.
Home again I unload the car, put things away, grab a handful of almonds, and again sit and watch the snow falling outside. I open my computer and catch up on some correspondence. Later we’ll go out for a late lunch/early dinner since we both have meetings tonight.
White space. On a page it gives the sense of rest and balance while focusing attention on what is really important. In life it does the same thing. In my life, it doesn’t happen enough, and since I am a confessing workaholic, that is largely my own fault. Today is a day to step back, breathe, think, read, and focus. I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.
Today is a white space day.
The alarm hasn’t gone off yet when I rise in the dark at 6:45, but I’m done sleeping. For me, the first order of life is coffee, and the kitchen is my favorite spot in the house. However, last night we found evidence that we’d been gone too much and we set a mousetrap under the sink. I check it first thing and yes, there's small mouse in trap. The house is ours again.
Coffee started, I create a simple breakfast before calling the man of the house to come. His first order of business is to dispose of the mouse. It’s not that I’m afraid of mice but if this is my white space day, he can deal with disposal of mice. He’s also working at home today so we sit at the counter talking for a time over the second cup of coffee, then reading in two different directions. I’m in 1 Peter this week, and he appears to be in Ecclesiastes.
The next white activity is shoveling a few inches off the driveway. Perhaps it’s a strange affection but I love shoveling fresh snow on a cold morning. There’s a rhythm to plowing back and forth across the drive that is both relaxing and exhilarating.
A white space day includes the normal drill of life – laundry, cleaning, catching up on email, but today I take time to browse a store in search of a few specific items for travel next month. I hate shopping, but today I wander, try things on, text the Dragon with a question about a sweater she might like, retrace my steps, chat with the woman hanging shirts. Next is the library to drop off books. Two weeks ago I actually sat with a cup of coffee in a corner among the stacks, book in hand. A good white space activity, but today I don’t need books so I go on to a second store where again I do more than search, grab, and fly. There is absolutely no one here today and it’s fun to just explore. Maybe the sheets of white fluff falling outside have discouraged the crowds, or maybe I’ve never been here on a Tuesday morning.
Home again I unload the car, put things away, grab a handful of almonds, and again sit and watch the snow falling outside. I open my computer and catch up on some correspondence. Later we’ll go out for a late lunch/early dinner since we both have meetings tonight.
White space. On a page it gives the sense of rest and balance while focusing attention on what is really important. In life it does the same thing. In my life, it doesn’t happen enough, and since I am a confessing workaholic, that is largely my own fault. Today is a day to step back, breathe, think, read, and focus. I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.
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