How many conversations will you have today? How many will be of the lasting kind? In this age of digital soundbites what we say might come back and haunt us. The lasting impact though will not last and what you and I say is mostly temporal. That is unless what we say and do is based on something that is lasting. The apostle Paul wrote lasting letters to the early churches. In 1 Corinthians he writes, ""When I was a child, my speech, my outlook, and my thoughts were childish. When I grew up, I had finished with childish things. Now we see only puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face."
Where is Love?
In New York Magazine this month writer Elizabeth Wurtzel comments, "I am 45 and have been living like I'm 25 since I was 15. It's precisely why I succeeded so fast, so young. Except: Now what? The article is titled: "My One Night Stand Life" and it reads like Salomon's Ecclesiastes. "A lot of chasing the wind." And it is sad- a young woman, wise beyond her tender years, wakes up used and as a user, wondering where it all went. Her honesty is like a prayer. It reads like a letter from a lost child who needs a guide to find her way home. She laments that her "independence" has now found her "alone."
Lasting grace - outlasting the world
"My knowledge now is partial; then it will be whole like God's knowledge of me. In a word, there are three things that last forever: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13: 9-13). What a way to pray. Pray to understand the true meaning of faith, hope and love and to practice it in a lasting way; living a lifestyle that takes our eyes off of "naval gazing" and fix our eyes on "Loving God with all of your heart, soul and mind and your neighbor as you would like to be loved."
The Advent of hope, peace, love and joy
There is so much to pray about from a Biblical worldview. The idea of preparing for eventuality is to put our hope in God whom we have access to through conversations in prayer. The systematic theological idea that suffering can start either an upward climb, or a downward spiral, depending on how we handle our situations. The downward spiral , without prayer, starts with suffering that produces a bitter root which produces misery, which produces resignation, which produces self -destruction. On the other hand when suffering produces prayer, prayer produces character; which produces joy, perseverance and overcoming. If you would like prayer please e-mail prayermail@juno.com.
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