P.O.W.

Yes...P.O.W.  Were you thinking Prisoner of War?  Yeah...I could see that.  But it's not what THAT means. ;)  When I was in junior high, our church's youth group really started taking off.  One of the big things that our leaders were pushing to teach us was prayer.  Our music minister's wife, Trudy, had this idea to make these little bracelets to remind us that Prayer Works.  So where does the POW thing come in?  Well...the bracelets were these simple little black elastic things that had a plastic letter P and a plastic letter W separated with a plastic bead with a heart painted on it.  We all wore them to school and stuff, and without fail there was at least a handful of kids wearing them that were asked "Why are you wearing a Prisoner Of War bracelet?"  Because that's what it looked like!  What was cool about them, though, was that people asking about them gave us all a chance to sort of share our faith in a "non-invasive, non-judgmental" way.  So Trudy and her team went into overdrive making these little bracelets so we could give them away to kids when they asked and we were able to share what "Prayer Works" really meant.  It went viral at my school!  It seemed like every kid had one.  That was a predecessor of the WWJD bracelets.  Not that we started the trend, but we definitely felt like those things were old news when they started getting popular.

So why am I sharing that story with you today??  Well, because even after all those years, I was reminded today about how TRUE the concept of Prayer Works really is.  Reminded maybe doesn't come close to describing it really.  Maybe bowled over is better!  I've mentioned my morning Bible reading and prayer time here before.  That's a "new thing" for me.  I read my Bible, yes, and of course I pray, but I don't know that I've ever really honestly set a "time" for it daily and held myself to it until now.  It's not as though I didn't think that was important, but I was a slave to the "busy-ness" in my life.   From my perspective, I just didn't have the time to sit down and spend time.  The truth is, I was really just robbing myself.  If you've ever been a part of a youth group or church group in your "growing up years", you probably heard the whole "quiet time" speech like a hundred times.  Like it was some sort of "expectation".  I don't know about you, but that mentality about spending time with God and in the Word just made it feel like a task.  Like running laps or taking vitamins.  So that residual mentality paired with an over scheduled life meant that my Bible reading was limited to Sunday mornings, the occasional Wednesday night, and the perforations in my day to day life when I felt like something was SO wrong I just NEEDED a quiet time.  Don't we always need that??  A few months ago, I might have argued to the contrary, but God has made me a believer (so to speak...)!

Last week, there was a little saying in one of my readings that said, "Meet Me in early morning splendor.  I eagerly await you here in the stillness of this holy time with me."  That little passage has returned to me several times over the week as I contemplate "starting my day" and returning to my "quiet time" later in the day.  God wants me FIRST THING.  Before the day and all of its drama can touch me.  Before I have a chance to be influenced by the world or by Satan himself, God wants to still my heart and my mind and help me focus on what is important.  Him!

So what happened today that has made me want to proclaim the power of prayer??  I have a dear friend, dare say a BEST friend, in Houston who is a teacher.  She works at an intermediate school in Pasadena in the Special Ed department.  She's been at that school for several years and has really worked to develop her reputation both there and in the district.  She had to sort of go to bat for a kid this past year in regards to some services that he wasn't receiving by way of Special Ed.  Unfortunately her principal was not supportive of her efforts, and as a result has taken it upon himself to make her job as difficult as possible.  He even went to the extreme of removing her from the department head position for no apparent reason and moved her completely out of her comfort zone into a position which entails working with "special needs" students.  They range from MR to severely Autistic to major behavioral issues.  I was so proud of her for keeping her head up through that whole process of changing and being humble and quiet about it.  She's a better woman than me!  She was informed last week that she was getting a student who has been being bounced around the district for various reasons.  She had been moved from her last "mainstream" school for kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach because she "hates pregnant women".  Sara is 7 1/2 months pregnant with her first baby.  Terrifying, no?  Sara has been very apprehensive about this girl.  Luckily the girl didn't show up yesterday for the first day of school.  However she spent her day dealing with a student who vomits when they're nervous and had to clean up 2 rounds of puke.  Again, what a trooper.  But when I've talked with her, I can just feel how beat down she's feeling.  It's heartbreaking really...  I've been praying for her and this situation for a while now.  And I hate when people say that they are praying for someone to bring them some sort of comfort but the really aren't praying.  So let me be the first to tell you that I ACTUALLY WAS praying...

This morning at 8:00 after Jonathan had left for the bus and I'd cleaned up from breakfast, I sat down to do my morning reading and prayer time.  I prayed for her and specifically asked God to help her find some peace about this situation and about her job in general.  I wanted really bad for her to receive some sort of joy from her job even if it was only for today.  She's so deserving of it!  So I texted her this morning at 8:30 (7:30 her time) to tell her what specifically I had prayer for her about.  Here's the text convo:

Oh my goodness, I was SO PUMPED!  What a blessing it was to see an answer to prayer so quickly and so vividly!  God reminded me that He's in control...of everything.  So even when I'm stressing about the things going on in MY life and I can't see His blessings, they are still there!  Sometimes it takes Him doing something for someone else for me to realize how powerful He is.  A prayer in Freeport, Bahamas reached Pasadena, Texas in enough time for my sweet Sara to receive that peace and joy and carry it with her throughout her day.  My goodness how that blessed my heart!

So my challenge for you tonight is to pray for something specific.  Pray VERY specifically.  Don't just pray for "forgiveness" or "your family".  Don't be generic!  Ask Him to be real for you in answering that prayer.  Ask him to show up!  He relishes in the opportunity to be that present for you.  He wants you to be overjoyed when you see how He works!

Ahem...and when that PRAYER WORKS for you, PLEASE share it with me and all of us!  You can post it here or email me or text me or Facebook me.  Whatever you're comfortable with.  But man, I would LOVE to have a giant chain of stories about the power of God through prayer!  It can be our little cyber version of those POW bracelets...maybe it'll go viral and touch more lives than we know!