Prayer and Christian Service.

Today's blog deals with two things that have been on my mind lately. I usually would separate different thoughts into two different blogs, but today's a lucky day for you.

Prayer:

In high school, I used to have the mindset that my prayers for a nation could not make a difference or that I could not pray hard enough to make a change somewhere halfway across the world. Boy, I have never been more wrong in my life. If you have been keeping up with this blog, you know that there was a time when I had people from different countries who I did not even know, praying for me and my family. I was so thankful for the thoughts and prayers that were for our behalf. Through that experience, the importance of prayer in my personal life grew tremendously. Not only personally, but I began to realize the need for prayer focused on other people, other tribes, and other nations.

As the body of Christ, we are to encourage other believers and douse our prayers on them. As we do so, the ties between each and every one of us is strengthened. However, our calling does not stop there. We are called to pray, encourage, and reach out to every part of God's creation. If that means praying fervently for a nation of whose tongue we are unfamiliar, if it means selling everything you own and moving to a country where there is not one familiar face, or simply driving across the train tracks in your hometown to minister to those who need, then we ought to do so based on that individual calling. So today, if you are having a hard time knowing what to do while watching the news of the many tragedies throughout our world, just sit and pray for the families. It will make a difference.

I was reading some of the details of the earthquake in Japan from a while back, and this is what I found,

"According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the largest initial earthquake struck at a depth of about six miles, about 80 miles off the coast east of Miyagi Prefecture, a mostly rural but still densely populated part of Honshu, Japan's largest island."-Chico Harlan, Washington Post

Eighty miles east and six miles deep, and it still made a terrifying impact on Japan. You know what that tells me? That if something that awful can be that strong, our prayers can triple that strength. No, they might not fix every problem, rebuild every home, or resurrect all the lives that were lost, but they CAN make a difference.

It also reminds me that my life full of deadlines, papers, grades, financial aid, interviews, and stress could be much worse.

Service Project:

Let me just fill you in on a little something. While looking into different graduate school's Psychology/Religious Studies programs (It's early, I know. But as we all know, I like to have a plan), I noticed something odd, you are required to fulfill eighty hours of Christian service in order to graduate. That is ten hours per semester. Therefore, it made me question whether forced service is Christian-like. Many students think that it would be more beneficial not to have required service; that way, the student body would have a better attitude and therefore produce more fruit of service in the community.

Believe what you want, but here is my thing: I was sitting here thinking about the service project, that most schools require, and quite honestly I dreaded even thinking about it. I had an awful attitude; not necessarily about the service requirement, but about the service itself. That is where my problem comes in, and I would be willing to bet it is where the majority of the student body's problem comes in. You know, that is kind of serious. It is a heart issue.

You see, the service requirement does not really matter. If I am in the right place with God, then I am going to want to produce fruits of service. Maybe not every second of every day, but for the most part, I will want to spread the love of God. I do not necessarily believe that having a better attitude would fix all of the problems, but it would make a fair dent into the heart of the problem.

Not to mention the plethora of other factors relating to the argument: Prior to attending these schools, you know of the service requirement, so in a way, you are asking for it; it's ten hours per semester, come on, that is hardly two days of work; you know, blah, blah, blah...

What I mean to say, is that God just put it heavy on my heart this morning that the issue was in my hands. If my attitude reflected Christ's regarding service, then the requirement would not be an issue when it comes to thinking about my future at different schools.