Eager Apollos

While I was brushing my teeth the other day I was struck by, what I am assuming was, the Holy Spirit. I was given the inspiration to sit in the library and put up a sign indicating that I will pray with people if they desire some prayer.

It is finals week and the library is filled with students that are cramming for finals, frantically typing papers or groups bickering over their last project. When you look around the fishbowl you see exhaustion on the faces of these study groups occasionally interrupted by moments of levity that get them through the next half hour or so.

Look at the computer screens and you see words racing across a virtual page or power point presentations full of data and graphs. Look at the faces of the typists you see that hope that the next word will be their last.

Between all night study sessions, quad-shot lattes, and Red Bull, Sabbath is the farthest thing from the minds of these students. It is in this context that I hope to offer a moment of rest.

I started late last night and had one taker. A student walked up to me and asked if the sign was mine. I was expecting to pray for all the reasons I just listed above, but I was in for a surprise. The student wasn’t concerned with finals or papers or anything of that nature, but he was worried about his mother.

He made his concerns known and we took a minute and offered up a prayer for her as well as for him. After, we had a brief discussion about each other’s backgrounds and then he jumped back into the fray.

I hung around until about 11pm. I had no other takers and spent my time reading, studying, typing or praying for those around me.

I am trying to spend a couple hours everyday this week in the library. We shall see what God has in store.

D&M is the destination spot for all people in Ellensburg who desire coffee and productivity.  College students brave the cold weather and walk the five blocks from campus to enjoy the brew and study for classes. Matt and I meet here on Mondays to prepare for the week.

While the Mexico trip isn’t for a few more months Matt and I are already planning for it. Coordinating with Amor and Church’s who host us on our way down takes time. With in the month volunteers will sign up, teams will be formed and (much like Jesus set his face Jerusalem [Luke 9:51]) we will set our faces to Mexico. The teams will gather tools, prepare financially (raise support), inspect vans, and pack their gear.

This isn’t a vacation but a service. The group’s mission is to build houses for families in need of more space. The conditions that these families live in can range from tolerable to crowded to completely unbearable. I have been present for the building of three new homes and only one of the former homes had a foundation (I am being generous in my description). Its our goal to serve the families in that way.

It isn’t all work, the drive down has a road trip feel even given the aggressive pace. We stop briefly at a beach in California and our building is occasionally interrupted by a game of soccer.

I have never heard of a student who had a bad experience on a Mexico trip.

Pray we meet our fund-raising goals to take the pressure off the students and that Matt and I are on top of our game when it comes to planning.

On Tuesday evening, after the ROTC bible study, I walked around campus praying over the buildings and the students who inhabit them. I started in the SURC and walked to all the significant places where we do ministry. I prayed over the room where we meet weekly, the couches where we hold The Cave, the rooms where we view the Truth Project and the chairs where we do one-on-ones.

From there I walked outside and prayed over the buildings as I walked past them. I prayed for the students I knew who frequented those buildings. I prayed for all the students to be diligent in their studies and to take advantage of the opportunity that they have.

It was a moving experience for me. I have walked these paths before. I was a student here not long ago. These buildings didn’t belong to just the students of CA, but they had belonged to me once. These hallways, classrooms and professors were mine.

The most important part of the walk for me came when I walked by the old SUB (student union building). Since I have left, the SUB has closed its doors, made redundant by the opening of the SURC (student union and recreation center).

I stood outside the sealed doors of the SUB and peaking in through the windows saw the places where I sat one-on-one with Matt, where I walked past the book table, and where we held weekly meetings. I prayed and thanked God for my time here as a student and asked that my memories not eclipse the future of CA on this campus.

I hope my memories inform my present but I pray that I am able to see the changes that have come to CA and I am able to adapt.

If you know me at all you know I have a tenuous relationship with music and singing in church. I once read in Augustine’s work that if he even felt like the aesthetics of the music were affecting him he stopped singing, as if at that point it ceased being worship. I was struck by this idea because when I asked my many of my friends, the most commonly stated reason for going to a particular church was “the worship” (music).

I know Augustine’s philosophical underpinnings. I have read Piper’s opinion on the matter and I am not wholly unconvinced. I will briefly say that I am not sure what role music-as-worship plays in a consumerist culture, but I am not sure I am comfortable with it.

I went to compline for the first time in a couple of years. I have always enjoyed going there and taking others that haven’t been before. I went to pray for my supporters and others in my life. This is another chapter in this prayer experiment of mine. When you walk in to the church where compline is held you can’t help but be impressed by size of the building. You are dwarfed by the massive of amount of empty space. The big glass tapestry behind the alter is dazzling as the light shines through it, refracting and reflecting all over the sanctuary. It is hard not to be affected by such a scene.

It wasn’t a pleasure to pray in such a place. I didn’t feel closer to God. It was just easier. Maybe it was the chanting, maybe it was the immense building, or the candles, or the people, or maybe it was just that I took an hour of my time and set it aside. But it was easier to pray.

So I guess this is more of a confession, I am affected by the aesthetics of church life. I am just unwilling to be comfortable with it in light of our current culture. I guess I am holding out for the church to draw more boundaries.

One of my commitments to those who support me in my ministry, either monetarily or through prayer or by other means, is that I pray for them regularly. I keep track of supporters’ prayer requests in a book and I review it on occasion.

This is an experiment for me. I have never considered myself a prayerful person. I generally leave prayer for those who are passionate about it. I have met “prayer warriors” (a term I have never really been fond of), those who have put literally thousands of hours in prayer. Often, on behalf of people they have never met and know nothing about. I belonged to a campus ministry that divided up a list of every student on campus and “covered” every name in prayer. I can’t image sitting down picking up the forth “h” page and trying to imaging what this person’s needs must be.

This is not to say I don’t pray. I pray for all kinds of things on different occasions. I pray for personal needs, for wisdom or for others, but you will never find me spending four hours attempting to talk to God. I have often talked about it in terms of gifting. God gave me my gifts and others, theirs, and prayer just wasn’t on my list. But now I have made this commitment and I plan on sticking with it.

What I have noticed since starting this experiment is that my thoughts often go back to those I have been praying for. I think of this or that person with this or that need while I am ironing my shirt or doing the dishes. I used to leave the TV running to fill the void. Now, the void is filled with concern or well wishing for those who are in my little book.

I am writing about this to inform those who are in the book that they are being prayed for and to let those who want be apart of my “people of the book” that all they have to do is email me their requests.

Thanks, for your prayers and support. This is a process for me and I am growing everyday in new ways, so please pray for me.