On a Limb

            In the "Categories" section, you'll find a link to my posts labeled "Interpreting Scripture". In these posts I wrote about how one should read the Bible. I enjoyed writing on the subject, but at the end of one of the posts I mentioned prayer. More specifically, I mentioned how I was such a novice I couldn’t write about it quite yet.

            This morning I thought about that statement. Why couldn’t I write about prayer? If I was to be brutally honest, it was because I’m not getting results. Why am I not getting results? It’s mainly three reasons: 1) I don’t do it enough, 2) I don’t have enough faith that anything will actually happen, 3) my prayers aren’t specific enough. The focus of this post will be on the last two.

            For instance, I’ll pray for my grandparents and their salvation. But I’ve been praying for years and nothing’s happened. My faith in that area has waned… no wonder my prayers aren’t impactful.

            Also, I make the mistake of not stepping out on faith by being specific. My prayers are often “Lord, I pray for a productive day and for me to glorify you*.” That’s great, but… I leave no room for God to fail. I leave no room for me to fail, because those two petitions are subjective. Luke 11:9-10 states:

            “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.

            “For everyone who asks received, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened**.” (NRSV)

            So, starting today, I’m trying an experiment. I’m going to be SPECIFIC in my prayers, and I’m going to have FAITH that God will come through. For instance, I work later today. This morning I prayed that I’ll get into a conversation on faith with one of my coworkers. Before, it stopped at “let me be a light at my work”. That’s great, but too general. Now I'm asking for a conversation on the most important topic ever.

            If you read this, help me out by praying for me!

*Nothing is wrong with that prayer. It just takes little faith.

**One of my Bible pet peeves concerns these verses. Ladies and gentleman, Jesus is NOT talking about evangelism and the unsaved, but about those who are already saved. These verses are often twisted.

Lonely in a Sea of People

            Awhile back I blogged about an amazing experience I had during a “dare2share” conference. It set a fire in my heart to evangelize to those around me. There is a world of people out there; we need to go get ‘em.

            But my post will not be on evangelism today. It will be on social media. I just got a Facebook today (yay!), so my mind went back to one of the messages Propaganda gave on this 21st century institution.

            Without bashing it, Propaganda talked about an interesting phenomena occurring. You see, we are lonelier now than ever. Just look at suicide rates along with all the other negative stats. But we are more “in-tune and up-to-date” with each others' lives than ever. How can this be the case?

            Propaganda answers by saying it’s because we often portray a fake persona online. We choose the photos that make us look the best. We only say the funniest or most profound things. We make ourselves look good.

            Then, when we log off, we go back to our real life. Where we make mistakes, have bad hair days, snap at those we love, and just botch things in general. But no one ever knows… because when we log back on we laugh it off, joke about it, vent about it (jokingly), ignore it, or dismiss it.

            But on the inside we yearn for someone to talk to honestly. Someone that can see us get truly sad or angry. Someone that can see the real, true us. We weren’t made to be screens or snapshots, but real people with real lives. You know, reality? What ever happened to it?

            As a culture, we spend hours a day on social media. We don’t get out and talk to one another. Face-to-face conversations are becoming extinct. I’ll go into a restaurant and I’ll see couples on their phones, completely ignoring each other. I’ll see parents on their phones while their kids are on theirs. And we wonder at the dysfunction.

            And we get lonely. No one sees us for how we are, but what we want to be. We want to be that comedian/athlete/perfect person/genius/model. Instead, we are just… us. We need to be more open.

            Now, I’m not on here to bash social media. I used to be that way, but I’ve seen that good can come from it. People don’t have time anymore for long phone conversations or to spend half a day at your house. But they do have time to upload a photo and a caption, letting people know what’s going on. You can keep up with friends when they move. You can let others know what’s going on around you.

            But for the sake of our sanity, we need to go outside of our screens and talk to people. Become vulnerable. Get real. Make a true friend or two.

Stillness and Freight Trains

            Life gets busy sometimes. Schedules are jammed full and often there is little time to reflect on what exactly is happening. Wake up, go somewhere. Get home hours later, then leave again to wherever else. Come home, go to sleep.

            Repeat.

            In the craziness, we don’t stop to think. We can’t, really. Not with everything else we have to worry about, from friends to “I hope we are friends” to not enough sleep to not enough time. I just went through one of those times, and you can’t stop to prioritize and gather yourself.

            But then yesterday I read a part of a verse from Psalm 46 that hit me like a freight train: “Be still, and know that I am God” (verse 10).

            Before and after this verse, the author was praising God using beautiful imagery and lofty compliments. Pretty typical for the “praise” psalms. But nestled in the poetry was that little nugget that rocked my world at the moment.

            So you know what I did? I stopped. I swiveled around in my old leather desk chair. And I did absolutely nothing.

            I quickly noticed the light streaming through my dusty blinds (I do not like dusting, haha). I noticed all the sayings and quotes I’d hung up on my wall. I closed my eyes and noticed how silence truly is a sound. There is a depth to stillness, you just have to extract yourself from the bustle of life to notice it.

            That is truly what being still is about. Noticing your surroundings, the people around you, nature, your situation, and, above all, your Creator. Taking the time to step back and realize what life is all about.

            “Be still, and know that I am God”.