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.

My outlook on prayer

I had a really amazing experience this morning.

I woke up this morning from a really compelling dream. I should perhaps add that I often struggle with to stay in reality, mentally; I often have to resist the urge to think obsessively about fantasy or book worlds. So I woke up from this dream, and it was literally all I wanted to think about. I actually lay in bed for a while, doing just that. I finally forced myself to get up, but I still couldn't think about anything else. Making breakfast didn't help, reading a book didn't help, even reading the Bible didn't help much. Then I started working my way through my prayer list. For the first time ever, I think, I wasn't trying to will the prayers true, and I wasn't bored and just trying to get through it. I was just talking to God, asking for His help--both with my own problems and for His protection of the species I was praying for. My experiences that morning had made it abundantly clear that I couldn't handle anything on my own. I was just talking to God, and basking in His presence. I was just with Him. The desire to think about fantasy worlds receded. Praying was a joyful, easy thing to do. It was, honestly, just completely amazing.

It made me think of the following C. S. Lewis quote: "I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time--waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God--it changes me." For the first time, I felt like I understood what people mean when they say that praying changes them--because praying today did change me. It centered me in God, and God gave me His peace and strength.

Unexpected Joy

This morning I was running late. I was determined to pray my way through my list of species before I left--maybe more out of stubbornness than anything else--but I was so worried about being late that I couldn't focus. I was saying the words, but my heart and mind weren't focused on what I was saying. I finally had to just stop for a minute and say another, entirely different prayer: about trusting things to God, about not worrying about things that weren't worth worrying about, that I would really mean the prayers that I prayed this morning and that I would believe that God could fulfill them.

As I kept reading, the species names that I read filled me with an inexplicable joy and seemed incredibly funny to me. Here's the funniest:
Mavomavo Giant Treefrog
Mawblang Toad
Maxwell's Girdlepod
Maya Knobtail
Genus Maydelliathelphusa


May you find God's joy today!