One day, casually chatting on my phone while leaving the church building, I tossed my briefcase in the trunk and closed the lid. In a nano-second, my attention was riveted to glaringly obvious, but up till now unconsidered, facts. The building was locked. My car doors were locked. The trunk was locked. All my keys were now safely enclosed in said trunk. With sickening speed, all the implications of my brilliant move came crashing into my consciousness. Sue was at school with the only extra set of keys and she was unreachable. My next appointment would have to be cancelled. It was a hot and humid June day. I wouldn’t make it to the bank before it closed. Those all-important last-minute errands before our flight the next day were now going to be a major challenge. Why do I always wait until the last minute to begin packing? Why didn’t I start in on that task early like Sue always did? (all this took about 4.5 seconds to invade my standard blissful ignorance. There are probably millions of situations where we are suddenly hijacked from ‘life is good’ to ‘Why me?’ (a flat tire in the pouring rain, the ruined birthday cake for the evening’s big party, a positive COVID diagnosis the day before the long-awaited anniversary cruise – you get the idea). These scenarios most often compel us to prayer, more specifically, rescue prayers, removal of obstacle prayers, miraculous unlocking-of-trunk prayers.
It may be that you are genetically disposed to be more consistently in a state of paying attention to what you’re paying attention to than I, thereby avoiding these pitfalls of mindlessness. Kudos to you! Really! However, if you are more like me, you, too, are likely dismayed by the ‘here we go again,’ especially knowing we have perpetual access to a Heavenly Father who loves us and delights when we accept His invitations. “The Eternal your God is standing right here among you, and he is the Champion who will rescue you. He will joyfully celebrate over you. He will rest in His love for you; He will joyfully sing because of you like a new husband.” Zephaniah 3:17 VOICE. A part of my recently established five-year-goal is to make Jesus famous. In order for that to take place, I’m thinking I’ll need a more robust sense of his loving gaze on me. And in order for that to happen, I’m thinking a boosting of prayer vitamins is in order. And on that note, I think our six-week prayer journey is going a long way to making that a reality. How about you? How goes your journey. Let’s hear more tomorrow at 10 AM, 3 PM FR. PD
