Prayers for the Philippines

I hope that all of you will join me and so many others in praying for the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

If you'd like to do something a bit more down-to-earth, GreaterGood.com currently has a click-to-donate where money from the clicks is donated to relief efforts in the Philippines.
(Correction: the daily click on GreaterGood.com is no longer for relief in the Philipines.)

Not For Sale

I'm going to mix it up a bit today and post about a book I just finished titled Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade--and How We Can Fight It, by David Batstone.

Not for Sale was both heart-breaking and riveting. It tells stories of both modern slaves and those fighting to free the slaves, with each chapter focusing on a different region or country. It was a hard book to read; most of the slaves underwent unimaginably horrible conditions, and those fighting against slavery were incredibly dedicated. Both sets of stories were challenging in different ways.

I know that merely reading a book about an issue does absolutely nothing. I also know, however, that knowing about an issue and the real-life people who are affected by it can completely change your perspective on it. I knew before reading Not for Sale that slavery was still an issue in the world today, but now I know how very pervasive it is, and now I have faces and stories to go with the huge idea of "slavery."

It also includes a section at the end about how you can get involved in the fight to end human slavery. This section was perhaps the only one that it may not be worthwhile to read, as it was almost 10 years out of date in my edition, but there is a newer edition available. For up-to-date information, you can also check out their website, http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/.

I would encourage you to read Not for Sale if you have any interest in modern-day slavery--or, if there's another issue you're passionate about (or just curious about), read up on it. Perhaps you can't read a whole book, but you can search around the internet a bit. Be informed--find out about a new issue today, and how you can make a difference.

Toys

A set of photos of how toys are made in China: Click here.

(Please excuse the language on the page. The photos are good enough that I'm posting this link anyway.)

New Day

Sometimes God's creation just says exactly what I needed to hear. Yesterday, after a truly awful day the day before (as in I spent the whole night crying on and off), I woke up to the most gorgeous day imaginable.

Every day is a new day.

MY impact?

A lot of the rhetoric these days around activism and helping people focuses on this idea that every person can "make a difference." In some ways this language is helpful (it reminds people that God can use even the smallest action to do amazing things, for instance), but in other ways it is incredibly destructive. It puts all of the pressure on US--it is the person who is making the difference, not the God who is working through her/him. It's an incredible amount of pressure, to feel that each person must go out and almost force change to happen, or that each person must make change despite their pitiful contribution or unresolved sin or finite amount of time.

Yes, the actions of each person are so important--God cannot act if we do not choose to act! But God's actions are so much more vital. God is the one who is changing hearts, fighting the spiritual battles, giving us strength when we have none, opening doors, making possible the impossible, pointing out problems that no one sees...

God is the one who will create change. So when you feel that you cannot possibly make a difference, that you don't have enough money or energy or time or anything else, just remember that God is the one who does all the real work. You will not fail or succeed based on your own strength or intelligence or passion.

Trash

Trash is something that we simply accept as part of modern life. What would we do without disposable ... well, everything?

Think about it. What do you use that can be used only once or a few times?
-paper plates and napkins
-trash bags
-contact lenses
-play programs/church bulletins/class handouts
-plastic bottles and containers (for soap, food, toys, gadgets....)
-aluminum cans
-wrapping paper
-tissues
-"to-go" food and drink containers...

I'm sure I could have thought of more. The average American produces 4.5 pounds of trash every day!! That is just beyond ridiculous. (The problems this creates are also ridiculous: this trash must be either buried or burned, but we're running out of places to bury it, and there's so many chemicals in everything that burning it is literally dangerous. A lot of this waste ends up being shipped to other countries, where poorer people get to deal with it. There is almost literally an island of trash in the Pacific Ocean, wreaking utter havoc on the wildlife and ecosystems there.)

All this trash is just incredibly wasteful. God's creation is not infinite, and filling it with trash does not honor its Creator.

I have stopped using disposable plates/food containers/silverware whenever possible. I have stopped using disposable feminine products. I recycle anything I can. What can you do to lessen what you throw away?

Prayer for Syria

Today I went to a service dedicated to prayer for Syria. Specifically we prayed for the civil war to come to an end, and for the welfare and safety of the people affected by the war. It was truly incredible to pray in a group, to together acknowledge the awful pain in this world but also take time to express our faith in God's power to overcome that pain.

Prayer for the Environment

I started this blog to chronicle my attempt to pray for every endangered species. Quite honestly, it was a massive undertaking. I'm not sure I regret it, but I do think that it was foolish. Foolish in a godly way? I'm not sure. But the extinction of species is in many ways just the tip of the iceberg of environmental problems, and always caused by some other, larger issue. Is it even helpful to pray for endangered species, or just frustrating for me? I know that I've failed at it pretty spectacularly (I was planning to be done last July, and I'm only slightly past the half-way point).

But can't God use whatever I do that is searching for Him for His purposes? I would still love to finish my quest, even if much, much later than I wanted to. The internet is full of stories of people finishing amazing tasks in incredibly short periods of time... but is that the best way to do things? Hurried, stressed, and concentrating on deadlines?

I am committing to finishing my quest. God will use me--use us, if you would join me! Prayer is powerful.

Lifestyle

I have been thinking a lot about my lifestyle lately. This is partly due to the fact that I moved recently to a new city, so have been starting in many ways afresh. This is also partly due to the fact that I have been reading and thinking about the rest of the world pretty consistently. What right do I have to live in utter luxury, at least compared to so many? What better things could I be doing with my money than buying earrings? What better things could I be doing with my time than playing stupid internet games?

And what about the source of those luxuries? Were those earrings made by underpaid, overworked women and children somewhere? Am I playing games using energy created by burning coal, thus furthering climate change? What about my food--is it farmed and harvested by other underpaid workers, or slaves? Is it grown with chemicals that are destroying the earth?

How can I create an impact that is less harmful? How can I create a lifestyle that doesn't wreak destruction of both lives and the planet?

And how can I create a lifestyle that brings me closer to God? I don't want to just drift through my days and years--I want to be a potent source of God's redeeming love, to those around me and to those I will never meet. I want to live a life that glorifies God, through both my prayer life and the impact that I have on others.

That is my new goal.

Global Warming

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has released a new report that climate change is definitely human-caused and definitely will cause changes in the next hundred years:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/27/ipcc-climate-report-un-secretary-general

Pray for an end to climate change--and act to make it happen!

My Prayer

Lord, I pray that I will blanket the world in prayer. Even if that blanket is badly woven, with many holes and areas of sloppy stitching, please use it for Your purposes.

Please change the world, and make it a place of joy and peace and communion with You. Please help to see its beauty but also its brokenness, around me and around the world. Please remind me to pray for both.

Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

A Difference?

Sometimes when I pray it just seems like what I'm doing is useless. There is so much need--how can I pray for it all? How can my small, quick prayers for one tiny aspect of one problem ever help anything?

For whatever reason The Starfish Story occurred to me recently. It deals with that doubt almost perfectly. Go read it. May it inspire you as it inspired me.

Even small actions make a difference.

Environment and Prayer Quote

“When it comes to climate change . . . what is often missing is quiet reflection and passionate prayer. As the world descends into fearful uncertainty, we need space to ask God for his perspective and intervention, to think about what our abuse of his creation says about us, and to plead for a new vision of God’s purposes for us in his world.”   

                         ~Dave Bookless

New and Old

I've been gradually getting in the habit of praying regularly again. It's difficult and rewarding at the same time; difficult, because bad habits are hard to break, but so rewarding, because I know that I'm doing the right thing and because I love getting closer to God again. Prayers that it continues to go well would be much appreciated, especially since I'm moving to a new city to start seminary in less than a week.

I've also started a new prayer practice. Over the summer I noticed that ideally enjoy praying while I'm doing things with my body: writing out my prayers, walking, (both of which I've been doing for a while), and making friendship bracelets. I decided to continue this practice (especially the friendship bracelets), but with something a bit more useful. So I've been learning to crochet! So far I'm still learning, making it hard to pray while I do it, but I'm getting better. Here's my first completed "project" that I worked on while praying:

I hope to make a bunch of them and see them together to make an afghan to donate.

I know that it would be hypocritical, to say the least, to knit with any old yarn when that yarn was probably produced with slave labor and environment-destroying chemicals. So, I'll probably complete this first project with yarn I have lying around the house (there's a lot of it), and afterwards I'll buy local, environmentally friendly yarn. I'm excited already!

A Prayer

Lord, you have given us this beautiful with the ability to harvest its products for our nourishment and comfort. Yet in our greed we are robbing future generations, poisoning your world and destroying many of your creatures. Help us, dear Lord, to come to our senses, to know that we interfere with your world at our peril, for it is your hand, not ours, that rules your world, for you created the universe and we have been put on earth to look after it in your Name.                                                                                                   Amen

(Souce: Christian EcologyLink's August 2013 Prayer Guide)

Lazy

I have become so lazy recently--in everything, including prayer. I haven't prayed for more than ten or fifteen minutes in... shamefully long. Prayers that I can make it out of this rut!

I hate summer. No, that's not entirely true, but it is possibly my least favorite season. I am very externally motivated, and have trouble motivating myself if I don't have things to do, things that others are telling me to do. What does that tell me about myself?

I commit again to praying more, and more intentionally. I intend to go back to carving time out of every morning to pray. I hope and pray that I can hold on to that intention, based on the knowledge that prayer is important and something that God wants us to do and something that changes the world. I hope and pray that I can root out this fear that I now have, that the world is too big for my prayers to do anything at all and/or that prayer is a waste of time.

Negativity

Looking back at my recent posts, I feel that most of them have been pretty negative--they're mostly about problems I've been having lately related to prayer.

Don't get me wrong: I've been struggling to pray consistently lately. But I don't want to give the false impression that I've given up on prayer, or that I dislike prayer, or that my prayer life has been totally awful. As always, when I follow God's lead and persevere, I am given some beautiful moments of prayer. This morning, for instance, I prayed for probably an hour, and now I feel wonderfully at peace.

Praise God!

Forced Prayer

Do you ever have to force yourself to pray?

I ask because I do, all the time. As I pray like that, it just all feels so fake, like such hypocrisy. I'm not feeling the prayer. I don't believe, at that second, that God is doing anything amazing through my prayers. I don't think He's doing anything at all. I just want to get on to doing something else.

Does God still hear those prayers? I hope so, because an awful lot of my prayers are like that. Does He know that I'm doing the best I can, trying to do what's right even when I don't feel like it? I'm sure He does.

Why I Pray

I have been thinking a lot lately about why I pray--and it's not a very pretty picture.

I pray when I want something from God: to win when I'm playing a game, for help when I'm facing sin, for guidance, to drive the thought of sin away, when I want a situation to go a certain way. I pray because I feel like I should: because I have a schedule to keep, because I know God wants me to pray.

And I don't pray much else.

Is it wrong to pray when you want something? I don't think so, not if you want the right things. But it is wrong to pray only when you want something. That's like using God as a vending machine ("if I pray for ten minutes, You give me this and that. Deal?"). And God is absolutely not a vending machine.

God in Prayer

Today I woke up feeling so far from God. And I knew it was my fault--I knew that it was because of thoughts that I was determined to have, sinful ones.

The last thing that I felt like doing was my morning devotional routine: Bible and devotions readings, and lots of prayer. I just didn't want to; it seemed incredibly unappealing. But I knew that I needed to. I needed to take time to draw closer to God, to let the bondage of sin fall away through close time with my Lord. So I did, and it was hard. I was distracted, my mind was all over... but, gradually, I was filled with peace, with the desire to do what was right and follow God that had been lacking before.

When I did settle down to pray (for the third time), it felt like there was a point. My prayers had meaning, and sincerity behind them. I did care. I did want to pray, want God to grant my prayers.

Today I experienced prayer as a way of throwing myself onto God, of saying, "God, I don't want to be here, doing this, but I know I need to. I know that I need You and Your presence in my life. Please change me through my prayers."

God showed me His love and power and mercy through my prayers today.

The Problem?

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
         ~ Leo Tolstoy

I can't remember when I first read this Tolstoy quote, but it has really stuck with me. It's just so true. Everyone speaks of changing things in the world: passing a new law to prevent corruption, adding a rule so this or that won't be allowed anymore, boycotting a company to send a message. But how often do people try to change themselves?

The true problem isn't big corporations, big government (or, for that matter, small corporations or small government). The problem is human nature, the broken nature of our souls and our relationship with God. The ultimate problem is sin--and humans have no control over our sin. Only God can save us from our sin, through Jesus Christ.

Please don't misunderstand me--I think it's vitally important to change things here on earth, often through channels such as legislation. But I also think that any change will ultimately fail if it isn't accompanied by a change in individuals: if a law exists but is ignored by everyone, then the law is worse than useless.

It's just so much easier to try to change others, to force change upon them and hope it will solve all the world's problems, than it is to look honestly at yourself and see how you are failing, how you are contributing to the problem. And that is why I chose to start my post today with this quote: it's so easy to fall into that trap as you're praying. It's easy to pray for God to change others, for change to just happen--but how is that change going to happen if no one is doing anything to help God make it happen? How is that change going to happen if you are not helping it happen? Praying for something without doing anything else about it, when you could be doing more to help--what hypocrisy.

What am I praying about? What am I praying about but unwilling to try to change in my life?

People Around the World

Since the beginning of this year, I have been praying for people around the world (using the book Operation World). It's something that has honestly always made me uncomfortable, the idea of praying for "those poor people who don't have Jesus." It seems intolerant and arrogant (yes, I know. I was definitely raised in a post-modern, tolerant world), but I have also been realizing more and more over the past year both how much I need Jesus and how much every other person on this earth needs Jesus.

Anyway. The reason I brought this up is because today I realized that it totally makes sense to blog about that here as well as my endangered species prayers, because praying for people around the world is just as important as praying for nature around the world!

Praying Consistently

I've been struggling a lot lately to pray consistently. (how often do I write that?) I want to pray, but at the same time I don't, because it feels like just another thing that I need to get done on my to-do list, just another task I need to accomplish.

I honestly don't know how to get out of this rut. How do I get myself to pray except by forcing myself to by figuring out how much I should pray each day? But... is deciding on what I should pray for each day the best option? Or should I decide how long I should pray each day and commit to that? Or should I simply let the Spirit guide me? The problem with that last method, of course, is that then it's pretty likely that, at least some days, I'll just give up on prayer for the day and not pray very long because I don't feel like it. Is that a bad thing? I'm sure God isn't trying to lock me into some arrangement where I have to pray for thirty minutes every day OR ELSE.

I suppose the only answer is to pray for guidance and for passion for prayer (also I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!). God has given me that passion before, and He can again.

Ze Concept of Crab and other Z's

Today I was praying through some species whose names begin with Z and ran across what is probably one of my favorite species names so far: Ze Concept of Crab. It is indeed a crab (scientific name Geothelphusa takuan), and it is found in Taiwan.

Here are some other great names that begin with Z:

• Zelebor's Nicobar Rat
• Ziama Horseshoe Bat
• Zapata Bladderpod
• Zamboanga Bulbul

Having finished the Z's today, that means that I am halfway done with my list of endangered species!

Is Prayer Important?

I've been thinking a lot lately about why I have trouble praying sometimes. One of the big issues I've realized that I (and, I suspect, most people) struggle with sometimes is the desire to do something palpable, something concrete and thoroughly of-this-world and physical (such as reducing how much I drive or recycling more). Praying seems so... silly, almost, and so it gets pushed down my to-do list until it just doesn't happen.

It required (and requires) a huge shift in my worldview to combat such a view. Praying is something that God calls us to do (Matthew 6:5-8, Philippians 4:6, 1 Thessalonians 5:17), so He must think it's important. I think prayer attunes us to the true reality of this life and its spiritual aspects--which are so easy to forget or ignore due to our physical existence here on earth. 

Reality is spiritual. God and what happens in the spiritual world are more important than what happens here in the physical world: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). It may seem as if our physical actions are and should be the most important, but that just isn't true. We are fighting against "spiritual forces", and the only way to defeat them is through prayer and the grace of God.

Selfish Praying?

Western Christianity emphasizes personal prayer as a way to draw closer to God, especially personal prayer--prayers about your day, prayers for strength and forgiveness, prayers of thanksgiving, prayers about your doubts and thoughts and heart--prayers about yourself, in other words. Maybe even selfish prayers?

Please don't misunderstand me: prayers about ourselves are an important part of our prayer life and overall spiritual life. They provide us a way to draw closer to God and to have a healthy spiritual life in which we raise up our lives to Jesus.

Personal prayers, however, are not the only kinds of prayers we should be praying. We should also be praying for others, for governments and countries, for the issues of the world such as environmental destruction and degradation and social injustice. How can we bring change and the love of God to the world if we are only praying about ourselves?

My prayers life was pretty nonexistent when I tried to pray only for myself. It was boring to pray, and I had no passion for it. When I began praying for others, however, and praying about things I was truly passionate about (such as endangered species), my prayers life almost literally exploded.

Prayer for both self and others are necessary for a healthy prayer life.

Renewal?

I know that a few weeks ago I recommitted to praying every day for endangered species, but that has been very difficult for me. Again, the time aspect was pretty big: I have lots of time, but I've gotten out of the habit of setting time aside for species prayers, and that made it harder to recommit. And somehow it just didn't seem that important.

I know that was foolish of me. If anything is important to me, I should be praying about it. Prayer is how to change things here on earth. I finally managed to start making a habit of it a few days ago, and this morning was pretty amazing. I knew in my heart that prayer is incredibly important for accomplishing things here on earth, and that God wants us to pray. It's been a rough few weeks, but I felt an incredible peace and joy as I prayed.

God is amazing! And He is always with us.

Karl Barth quote

“To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” (Karl Barth)

This past week I really felt that this was the reason that I pray. I just saw so many wrongs in the world, so much brokenness, that it drove me to pray. 

May God break our hearts for the brokenness of this world.

Renewed Commitment

As you have probably noticed, I haven't posted much here recently. That's because I haven't been praying much for endangered species--don't get me wrong, I've been praying about all sorts of things (nations, friends and family, people at my school, even some environmental stuff), but endangered species have not been something I've prayed for lately. I think it's because it just seems so overwhelming, looking at this long list and trying to work through it every day. It's intimidating, and it seems as if it will take up just too much time (I wish that wasn't a large part of the reason, but it is).

But I've come to realize that this is unacceptable. Prayer is important--God wouldn't ask it of us if it weren't. Prayer changes the world. Well, one thing I want to see less of in the world is extinctions and other environmental degradations, and if I truly want that (which I do) then I will have to commit to praying about it as well as changing my actions.

So this is me, committing a second time to pray for the earth and endangered species. I know more what I'm getting into this time around, but I am determined. More importantly, for those times when my own strength ands determination fail, I know that God is calling me to this and that prayer is important.

Late Nights

I can't sleep tonight, so I got out my computer. I was planning on going to some pointless website, but instead I felt the urge to pull up my list of endangered species. I prayed through a few and felt God's peace.

Martin Luther quote

"God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on the trees, & in the flowers & clouds & stars." -Martin Luther

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

I just wanted to take a few minutes to post a few ways that you can make a difference this Earth Day and every day.

1. Pray. I would love if others would get involved in my quest to pray for every endangered species!

"Absolutely everything you ask in prayer, believe it and you’ll receive it." (Matthew 21:22)

2. Think. Before you buy anything, think about whether you need it or not. Then think about it again.

3. Click. Great website where you can click every day to help stop climate change, deforestation, and extinction (as well as hunger, breast cancer, violence...):

              Care2.com
              The Rainforest Site
              Ecology Fund

Update

No worries; I've still been praying, if somewhat sporadically. However, I have comprehensive exams in two weeks and will not be posting until that is done.

Struggling

As per usual, I have been struggling to pray as the semester gets into full swing. Prayers that I can motivate myself to pray without feeling like it's a chore!

Goals

I've been thinking a lot lately about the goals of this blog and what I'm trying to accomplish through it.

More than anything else, I want to encourage others to pray. Not necessarily about environmental issues, although those are important, but just about whatever you're passionate about. There is always need for more prayer. I know that through this personal challenge I've been praying more, not just for the environment but also for people I know, countries, churches, causes, and people I don't know. Prayer has become a big part of my life, and I love it. I pray that you, who visit this blog, will try out prayer for yourself and allow God to transform you.

Blessings on your new year!

Quote

“Prayer at its best opens earth to heaven.”

~Selwyn Hughes

Prayer Block

I really haven't felt much like praying lately--or perhaps I should say that I want to pray except when I sit down to actually do it. I pray that God will give me the patience and perseverance to keep praying even when I don't want to, and that He will hear my prayers even if they are not asked for with my whole heart.

New Year!

It's been a while since I've posted here. I have been reflecting a lot on prayer and its power and where I want and God wants me to go with this blog and the challenge that inspired it.

I just read This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti, a book about spiritual warfare. Prayer is depicted as just so incredibly powerful in this book, as something that really can affect change. It really inspired me to pray a lot more, and hopefully I'll be able to continue to remind myself about the power and importance of prayer.

Secondly, I've decided to extend my challenge, and aim to finish praying for endangered species by the end of this year, so by December 31, 2013. I can't believe that it's already 2013!

I hope everyone has a wonderful new year!