Good evening friends!
I'm trying to write a sermon, but it's not going so well. So of course, I turn to the blog for distraction and/or inspiration.
I've actually been meaning to write this post for a while now, but my week has gotten away from me. Tuesday, I had to get the packing lists for this year's Alive festival mailed out to all the students. This is typically a tedious project. First, I have to open up the file from last year and change all the dates and times and what have you. Then I proof read it, which was hard this year because Ed was in class, and so I had to proof read it all by my lonesome. And if you've read this blog for any length of time, you know that proof reading is not my style. At all. So if you're going to Alive this year with us, and you got your packing list, please add "lawn chair." Completely slipped my mind.
Then I had to wage war with the paper folding machine. It's this device that lives in the print room at Westminster, and claims to make life easier on all of us. Wrong. It's sole purpose is to taste human blood. That thing is insane. There are way too many buttons for a machine that is supposed to in essence be a faster pair of opposable thumbs. Luckily, Mariela who runs the print room was there that morning. She commands respect from the machines. They obey her. But that didn't stop the dreaded paper folding machine from scowling at me while neatly creasing the letters in question. It was a scowl, I tell ya!
From there I returned to my desk, and set up an assembly line. A stack of packing lists, a equal sized stack of Veritas envelopes, and a sheet with mailing labels for everyone who is signed up for the trip. I had 15 minutes to get the labels on and the letters stamped before our weekly staff meeting, so I was in go mode.
But then I thought about something that Dr. Sunquist said during class one evening last term. Every morning, he wakes up and walks to the seminary from his house, and as he passes the dorms, he takes a moment to pray for the students that are just waking up and getting ready to start their day. Because why would you waste an opportunity to pray for someone, even in a mundane moment of life?
And so I took those words to heart, and spent a little bit of extra time praying while I stuck labels on envelopes. Some of the students I've known for all 6 years we've been going to Alive. Some of them I know, but not incredibly well, maybe because they just moved up into 9th grade. Some of the students I don't know at all, because they're friends of some of the other kids and this will be their first entry into youth group with us. And so I prayed for each one of them. I prayed for this trip, even though it's mostly a fun trip, meant to be an enjoyable start to summer, I prayed that these students would have a profound experience with Jesus along the way. I've been praying the same thing ever since.
This isn't meant to be bragging. My prayer life is nothing to be bragged about. It is however (hopefully) an awakening, a return to a prayer life consistently for the students and for the ministry that we've been called to at Westminster. Too often I get caught up in the little things, the details, the how and why and when and where that I forget the Who that's behind it all. And that's not right at all.
So take a few moments this week and pray for your kids. Even if you've wrapped things up for the summer, take just a few moments in your office and pray for the students who God has graciously placed in your life, and pray that they would experience Jesus in a new and radical way. Because I'm quite sure that's a prayer that God never tires of hearing.
Ok, sermon time!
Godspeed,
J
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