Life of Pride
Monday, August 08, 2005
The countdown is underway. In a day and a week, I'll be on the road to PHC. Like Kirsten E. posted on her blog, I think I'll be ready. God has been breaking me over and over again this summer, so that I am not the same person who left PHC in May. I've been reading Bible for at least an hour almost every day, so that I'll be finishing this year's entire read-through a few months early, if all goes well. I've also been spending significant chunks of time in prayer.
God has been teaching me about prayer since last summer. I was looking around for a devotional, and I found a skinny red booklet entitled Deepening Your Conversation With God, all about the importance of prayer. Before, I would drop little thoughts throughout the day and, with a virtuous feeling, every several days I would kneel down by the side of the living-room couch and pray for ten minutes or so. The little red booklet changed my outlook entirely. It told true stories about prayer, things I'd never heard before, such as the way the American missionary movement began - a non-stop prayer vigil by a group of students. One phrase stuck with me (I may not have the phrasing, but I have the meaning): "Prayer is not an interruption from your real work. It is the most important work you can do." After that, I began to pray much more frequently, and for much longer. It began to be a habit. Last summer was a time of submission and peace.
I entered junior year determined to make quiet times and service to others a priority. To my amazement, I started getting positions of responsibility. I kept up my quiet times, and I began to have weekly prayer sessions with three of my good friends. Over Christmas break, I read the letter Dr. Hake (lit teacher) had given his own daughters when they went to college, which he had kindly forwarded on to me. In it he advised them to spend at least two hours out of every day either talking to or learning about God, through prayer, singing, journalling, or reading Bible and devotional books. I made that my own goal. It seems a small amount to give to the Creator of the world.
So that's what I've been doing this summer. I've been thrown on God over and over again, and He has helped me accomplish so much. I am utterly, completely dependent on Him. What a different feeling from the end of last summer. A year ago, I was berating myself for how little of "my" goals I had accomplished. Now I am thankful for what I have been able to do.
God has been teaching me about prayer since last summer. I was looking around for a devotional, and I found a skinny red booklet entitled Deepening Your Conversation With God, all about the importance of prayer. Before, I would drop little thoughts throughout the day and, with a virtuous feeling, every several days I would kneel down by the side of the living-room couch and pray for ten minutes or so. The little red booklet changed my outlook entirely. It told true stories about prayer, things I'd never heard before, such as the way the American missionary movement began - a non-stop prayer vigil by a group of students. One phrase stuck with me (I may not have the phrasing, but I have the meaning): "Prayer is not an interruption from your real work. It is the most important work you can do." After that, I began to pray much more frequently, and for much longer. It began to be a habit. Last summer was a time of submission and peace.
I entered junior year determined to make quiet times and service to others a priority. To my amazement, I started getting positions of responsibility. I kept up my quiet times, and I began to have weekly prayer sessions with three of my good friends. Over Christmas break, I read the letter Dr. Hake (lit teacher) had given his own daughters when they went to college, which he had kindly forwarded on to me. In it he advised them to spend at least two hours out of every day either talking to or learning about God, through prayer, singing, journalling, or reading Bible and devotional books. I made that my own goal. It seems a small amount to give to the Creator of the world.
So that's what I've been doing this summer. I've been thrown on God over and over again, and He has helped me accomplish so much. I am utterly, completely dependent on Him. What a different feeling from the end of last summer. A year ago, I was berating myself for how little of "my" goals I had accomplished. Now I am thankful for what I have been able to do.
Comments:
Thank you, Wes. What you say does seem a little strange coming from you, since you say you are no longer a Christian, but it is true and encouraging for me nonetheless.
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