Prayer has great power!

Be careful what you pray for! Prayer has more power than you can imagine.

A few Sundays ago at The Well, we dedicated book bags for our children as they prepared for school. Along with the prayer for the book bags, we made bag tags for each child. On one side of the tag was our church logo with the child's name. On the other side, there was a prayer for the child and the parent to pray each day as they were leaving the house.

A mom stopped me the other day to tell me how much praying with her child had changed their world. She reported that the child left the house with a great confidence each day. For the mother, it seemed as though she was letting her child go into a safe world as God was surely going with her child. Each year the child had struggled in school in studies and in the social aspect as well. This year all of the struggles have disappeared. Their life is better.

I believe that the discipline of prayer brought about that change.

A young couple is struggling with every aspect of their life. Their dream of happiness seemed to be lost. Then they began to do something different. Each morning at the breakfast table, they paused and prayed for each other. Each would name the struggles that were present. Each one would ask for God's direction in every way. Then at the close of each day, they would spend some time reflecting upon the day--listening to one another. Before going to bed, they prayed again.

The couple is still not out of the woods. But when they talk about life's difficulties they speak with great optimism. "We know God is at work in our life. We know that we will make it". The only thing they have done differently is to give themselves to prayer.

Prayer is the discipline of time and space. Prayer is constant communion with God (Harry Emerson Fosdick) Prayer is the opening of intimacy between God and those for whom we pray.

My wife, Mandy and I, have added a prayer discipline in our life of more intentional prayer for one another. Our life is filled now with anxious moments with both of our fathers having been hospitalized and weary. We have spent more time apart because of the care of our fathers which is a necessary thing at this time of our life.

Our prayers have made us stronger. Prayer does this. Prayer invites us to more intimate relationships with God and those whom we love.

Need some more power in your life? Need to be closer to someone you love? Pray. There is great power in prayer.

Where are you Diving?

Over the past few months, we have learned about deep sea diving. The cameras have shown us what it looks like at the bottom of the Gulf. We continue to hear about what is down there in the deep. I have a strange question for you: Where are you diving?

One description of the church has stayed with me over the years. I do not remember who said it. It is not an original image so I give credit to someone else. This is the statement: The faith equips churches to do deep sea diving but most are content to do all their diving in the bathtub.

Another way one has said this is to say that the Holy Spirit of God equips us to fly like eagles but we much prefer running with the chickens. Chickens fly but not far and not very high.

Where are you diving? It is a way of asking the question of how much of the risky business of the faith are you doing?

Jesus of Nazareth was a risk taker. He did not settle for less nor did he avoid persons who might disagree with him. On the contrary, where do you find Jesus? You find him in the temple. You find him among the sinners and the oppressed. You find him "out of the box" in terms of reaching people. No mountain was too high. No sinner was off limits.

A poll of persons near the end of their life asked this question, "If you could go back and do life over again, what would you do differently?" The number one answer was "I would take more risks". In looking back in their life, the greatest rewards were found when they dared to take the greatest risk. Life was not at its best but it produced much over the long haul.

Maybe God is inviting you to dive a little deeper. Maybe Jesus' words to fish in the deep waters are for you. Maybe it is time to dive where you are capable and fly higher than you ever dreamed.

Now if I can only get out of the bathtub without tripping.......

When All Else Fails--Love

There are times that I simply do not know what to say or what to do. I got nothin'.

The problem is that many times we try to fill the empty spaces of life. The other day at my Kiwanis club meeting, my fortune cookie said, "A closed mouth tastes no feet." I find myself afraid of the moments that I simply have no response.

With the anniversary of 9/11, I find myself with so many feelings. I got nothin.

There is a part of me that still knows the shock and horror of the day. I watched in disbelief with the students at Centenary College in Shreveport where I was chaplain. I began to pray with college kids who had family and friends in NYC. I helped students make contact with family and friends. I found myself wanting to hear the sound of my family's voices to know that they were alright. It was a helpless feeling.

Then I am confronted with the lingering sorrows in life. I still tear up to think of mothers, fathers, children, uncles, aunts, grandparents.--lost by the action of a few misguided religious zealots. How much harm can we do in the name of religion---not just other religions but our own as well. The extreme radicals in all faiths are a threat to the peace that God wishes our world to have.

And this week, the reckless actions of a small church preacher who thinks that his understanding of rights and condemnation supersedes the safety of our nation as well as those who are serving our nation. I am distressed at how the media of our day has focused itself on the "spec" of life that offers hatred instead of the world of compassion and grace. Why would we give such hatred so much attention?

Many in the world have turned to the cycle of violence out of a sense of helplessness and frustration. Humans do that when they are afraid and full of themselves. How much destruction must take place for us to learn that violence births violence. And the supreme example that stands in contrast to the world's yearning for violence is our salvation--the cross. It is the cross that insists the world's violence will not ultimately win.

Paul warns us in the 13th chapter to the church at Corinth. The church at Corinth was at war within itself. They were a fighting church--fighting with each other. Paul instructed them, " If you have all the power to do everything, but have not what? Love. Love is the answer." When all else fails, love wins. Love works. It is the greatest of motivators. It is the greatest of all. Love can change this world.

Next time you find yourself saying, "I got nothin'", Love. When you're life is filled with uncertainty and raw emotion--love.