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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Passion for Prayer

My passion for prayer has been rather small these past few weeks, to say the least. I've been busy and tired and stressed, with so many other things on my mind that I've been trying to work out with God. I'm not entirely sure how that all made me think not praying was OK, but too late now. I haven't been praying much lately. I've probably gotten through three or four days' worth of species prayers in the past two weeks. I've been feeling lazy, complacent, unsure.

Today I picked up the book This Present Darkness, by Frank E. Peretti. I'm not nearly done with it, but I've definitely figured out that it's about spiritual warfare. There are demons and angels running around, along with normal people. Prayer is shown as the only defense we humans have against those demons, as vitally, vitally important in the fight against Satan. I just suddenly had this urge, this passion for prayer. If it's that important, I'm going to do it.

"Saving Species"

I recently watched "Saving Species", part of the Planet Earth series. It's about conservation and the need for conservation, about species that are currently disappearing, and it totally made me cry. Mostly because everything they showed was just so beautiful (the whole series has amazing cinematography), but also because the destruction of nature is just so tragic, in the noblest sense of the word.

The episode also raised some really, really good points about conservation and nature. What gives us (rich white people) the right to tell them (extremely poor inhabitants of any third world country) what they should be doing with their wildlife and natural areas? Is conservation so important that we should give money to protect some butterfly, mouse, whatever instead of helping to feed hungry people worldwide? Is our concern for tigers more important than the people in India that tiger may kill? Why should we try to preserve every single species?

Why should we try to preserve every single species? I think this question is especially hard to answer with science; studies about the benefits of diversity have had mixed results. As a Christian, however, I find that the answer is relatively simple: God created this earth with species on it, and destroying any part of it means destroying God's creation. God created it that way for a reason, so we shouldn't mess with it.

What I took away from this episode, more than anything else, was that nature is awe-inspiringly, stunningly, fantastically beautiful, and we should be doing so much more to protect it.

Peace

Yesterday I was very stressed out in the morning. I had so much to do, I just wanted to wake up and charge right in. But God really wanted me to pray, so I did (rather unwillingly). And as I did so, I was overcome with an amazing sense of peace. I knew that God was in control and that He could handle my homework, just like He can handle everything else in my life. Awesome God!!

The Power of Prayer

Today once I was finished with classes, I suddenly felt very depressed and tired. Walking back home, everything seemed gloomy. "Pray," God said to me. So when I got here, the first thing I did was pray for 55 endangered species. And I do feel better now. Still a bit tired and sad, but so much more able to face the rest of my day now.

The Universe

I was thinking about the universe today, and how awesome it is! The universe is so large--and yet God is larger. He created the whole universe and knows it intimately. He knows every time a star is formed, and yet He also knows every time two atoms come together. How awesome is that!! God is infinitely large and infinitely small--bigger and smaller even than the universe.

(A really cool interactive illustration of the size of the universe can be found here--and God is bigger!)