The drive up to NY has already produced fruit resembling the possibilities of the future week. We met a man named Charles at the gas station in NJ and got to talk to him about his life and family. When we told him that we were on a mission trip to NY he seemed pretty excited. He told us about one of his friends that lived in a tool shed the last couple years of his life. He said that you can tell when someone who is down on their luck is not going to make it when they lose their hope in life. When you lose hope, you lose life.
I was in Chap’s van and he told us a story at two different times. Both times, I felt as if I should have a piece of paper out writing down everything that he was saying. He has so much experience and advice to give and I feel lucky to have the chance to receive it. He first talked about marriage and how he met his wife and the process that they went through. He went on to explain what he thought were some of the keys to marriage and dating. His second story was about a trying time he had when he became a battalion commander in the Army. When he got the job he prayed to God that he could be used to bring glory to God. As he went on to explain, God used some pretty hairy moments to prove His faithfulness and power. By the end of his time serving in that position, his men knew that if he went for a walk that he was praying and that everything would be okay. Powerful.
Tonight, when we got finished with our meeting in NYSUM we decided to pray before we went up to our rooms. Chap said, “Let’s pray.” We all bowed our heads and immediately I felt like God was saying that He was going to call on me to pray and so I started almost willing Chap to call on me to pray. Sure enough, ten seconds later, Chap asked me to pray. I know that the moment was simple and yet it had a profound effect on me. A passage from the book Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult, which I just finished, sums up how prayer is starting to feel to me.
“His words run over me, catching on all the rough patches and wearing them down. Prayer is like water-something you can’t imagine has the strength or power to do any good, and yet give it time and it can change the lay of the land.” (Page 358)
You see, not many people go to God when things are going well. Not many people cry out to God unless things look so bad that we can no longer rely on our own abilities to control the situation. No wonder many people find that their relationship with God grows exponentially when they are going through a rough time in life. It is when we are left without any other option that we learn to fully rely on God. When all else fails in life, we pray. When our world gets turned upside down, we trust the Creator. But, what would happen if we prayed like this no matter what was going on in our life? What if we prayed for God to move greatly in our lives even when things are going well? I pray that this week will not only be a week where God gets to use me to reach others but that God can use others to teach me what He is truly about.
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