Learning to Pray

One of our goals in the disciple-making process for our students is to see them develop an authentic, vibrant prayer life. As I was thinking through how we practically go about helping that happen, I was struck by something and it's led me to try something new.

There are at least three different times a week that I'm with a group of students where we begin by taking prayer concerns and praying for them as a group. What struck me was that we often hit the typical stuff - illnesses, travel, stressful situations and often not much more. This hits me in stark contrast to some of Paul's prayers that he mentions in his letters.

Since we're called to pray over all manner of things (Ephesians 6:18), we will continue to lift up any concerns on our hearts. However, I'm going to try and add one more thing: each time I want to add that we pray for something that Paul would have prayed for us or taught us to pray for others. Right now the one that's really rocking my world is his prayer for the Ephesians in 3:17-19:

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Paul's prayers often strike me as peculiar because we rarely hear people pray for those things today. Perhaps they're just praying for them in private, but if we're trying to demonstrate prayer and help students grow in it, I think helping them know and embrace biblical prayers is a great idea.

Fruitful Labor

Last fall when I was preaching through Philippians at a local church, I was really struck by Paul's statement in 1:22 as he's wrestling with the real possibility of death before him. He says, "If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me." One thing that hit me was the certainty of his statement. He knew he'd be fruitful if was to keep drawing breath.

As I pondered that for a while, I began to think of a lot of the things that keep us from being fruitful today. Many of them may not look particularly "spiritual" on the surface, but I've found that they greatly impact just how fruitful we are each day. I think in each of these areas of life, we should be faithful and disciplined so that our lives can be as fruitful as possible for God and His kingdom.

In no particular order, here's some of them.

1. Regularly getting enough sleep. I have a friend who has often said, "Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is go to bed." I firmly believe this! Ever since I established a consistent bedtime of 11pm every night, followed by getting up at 6am every day, I've found my life to be far more productive.


2. Eating right. This one rocks my world because I've seen what an effect poor nutrition has on me. If I consume large quantities of sugar - pop, candy, snacks, etc - it just knocks me out. Then I'm tired, lethargic, grumpy, and very ineffective in my life! The other piece of this is that I have to make sure and drink plenty of water each day.


3. Getting exercise. It's just a fact that the American lifestyle lends itself to being sedentary. We don't have to walk anywhere and many of our jobs no longer revolve around physical labor. I spend much of my time sitting with students or sitting at a desk - so I regularly have to schedule some racquetball or some other form of activity. It makes a radical difference on how I feel each day. I've also had to incorporate stretching into my daily routine - apparently things really do change as you get older.


4. Less sickness! Doing each of things has kept me from being sick (other than the occasional runny nose) for over a year. That means no missed days of work, no canceled appointments with people and no scrambling to find a replacement for some urgent responsibility. I'm not suggesting that you're a lazy irresponsible bum if you come down with the flu, I'm just saying making wise choices can go a long way in protecting you from it.

I could probably add some other things to the list - especially being financially responsible - but that's a quick four to throw out today. Does anyone out there have other things they would add to a list like this?

Super Party Idea

Yesterday the Saints defeated the Colts in a less-than-epic Super Bowl, but we had a great party at the BSU and students were glued to the game until the final snap. Is that because we are loaded with football fanatics? Not at all. We've simply discovered the best way to watch the big game: by incorporating fantasy football!

We tried this idea out last year and had so much fun we knew we would be doing it over and over. It wasn't until some friends from other ministries asked for the details that I realized I should share this idea with everyone else. One of our seniors (you rock, Austin!) put it together last year and, even though he has graduated and moved on, he gladly helped us out again this year.

As participants show up at the party, they randomly pick a player from each team. We had them printed on colored slips, blue for the Colts and gold for the Saints. The slips were folded in half so people couldn't see who they were getting. The slips themselves (which I'll link to at the end of this) gave all the necessary info for playing the game: the player's name, number and position, as well as how they scored points for you. Peyton Manning, for example, got you one point per completion and bonus points depending on how long the completion was. He also got six points for a touchdown and two for completing a two-point conversion.

Each time a participant's two players scored a total of ten points, that person entered their name into a drawing for prizes. Everyone also got to enter their name into the drawing once for free before the game began. It's up to each person to pay attention to the game and keep track of their points. Prizes were given out at the end of each quarter by randomly drawing names. By the way, anything that shoots (think Nerf) works great for prizes!

Since everyone has a player from each team, there is a chance you'll score points no matter which offense is on the field. And a few obscure players also gave the chance to score points on field goals and PATs.

Watching the game this way makes each play exciting regardless of how the game itself goes. And it's a lot of fun to see four or five people let out a huge cheer when Jeremy Shockey makes a catch for 20 yards!

You can download the Word doc here.