on rhythms . . .
Every Friday morning at 8 the entire Education Division walks into one of the classrooms, picks up a stack of cards with names on it, and begins to pray. . .one by one, over every name. On the cards is every person in our division, every leader in the hospital, every partner we have, every program, and every post graduate student – all 117 of them. We pray name over name, and each week we add to the things lifted up the week before.
I play my playlist for the year as we pray (this year my word is Held. . .if you are on Apple Music, this is the link), and then at minute 20, one person shares something – sometimes a verse, a story, sometimes a song, sometimes a prayer out loud. This week Sam shared the story of trusting God with what little he asks of us so he can fulfill us completely.
Last year, when we gave the cards out at graduation, one of the students came up and asked, “but how did you know? I didn’t tell anyone. . .” I am not sure what her card said that resonated so completely, but it assured me of the Spirit’s presence in our midst every Friday as we gather. We gave the rest out at Christmas, and in my feedback in February, that card and the prayer that accompanies itwas mentioned as much as any other thing we do. . .
This time together is my favorite 30 minutes of the week – when nothing else takes precedence, and we gather from the newest person to the most senior to lift the week before the Father. We remember that in all the programming and planning and forms and projects, that bringing our students and our team before the throne of grace has immeasurable power.
Our Bible Study just finished A Praying Life by Paul Miller, and in it he says. . .”If we love people and have the power to help, then we are going to be busy. Learning to pray doesn’t offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart. In the midst of outer busyness we can develop an inner quiet.” In that way, we close our busy week handing Him each person, placing our need to help in His capable hands and building a less-busy rhythm of dependent prayer.
