European University Students :)

Well, you have probably already heard, but Randy and I are going to Europe this July!


We are so excited that Randy was asked to teach on Biblical Global Justice at the international conference taking place in Cologne, Germany. Students from all over Europe will be joining us at CONNECT 2012 -- a conference put on by Students for Christ, Europe (basically SFC = the European version of Chi Alpa). Not only will Randy teach several sessions on BGJ, but I will also have an opportunity to teach a session. I am able to choose my topic (sweet!) and Randy and I narrowed it down to this:

Engaging God in the Everyday

God created us so uniquely, so why do we take a “one size fits all” approach to connecting with Him? This session will enrich your spiritual life by exploring various forms of prayer and helping participants to better understand their own spiritual temperaments.

I am eagerly thinking and praying about how to bring some of the most impacting aspects of my training over the last few years to these dear students. Would you pray with me in advance for their hearts -- that they would be open to pursuing connecting with God in different ways, that they would be drawn by the Holy Spirit to this session, that God would speak very clearly to my heart as I prepare and give this teaching.

Prayer is such a powerful, yet simple thing. It's amazing to me just how transformative experiencing prayer can be. Though it gets talked about as this mysterious, ethereal experience (it is mysterious -- don't get me wrong)... It really is a very simple concept of posturing oneself in an attitude of openness to connecting with God. It can be one in which you pour your heart out to God verbally, mentally or physically... or it can be a completely silent experience (both internally and externally) in which the action and verbage is coming from the Almighty God. You may walk away feeling a distinct something from that time of connecting with God or feeling absolutely nothing. But no matter what you do, say, read, write, sing or think, coming to God with a desire to be open to connecting with him is the only necessary thing. 

The heart behind a topic like "engaging God in the everyday" is to bring a few more ideas to the table on what engaging with God could actually look like. Too often, we (rightly) speak in vague terms about prayer and leave it at that. Yes, prayer is vague (because it can take such different forms for different times and people), but there are actually concrete ideas on how to approach prayer. This is what I hope to encourage students with.

Do you go crazy in an empty room trying to pray? Try taking a walk and conversing with God about what you see or what comes to mind. Do you get distracted by walking by people and things that might make your mind go on a tangent? Try sitting with a journal in hand so that as your body writes what your mind is thinking, there is more coherence in your body as you pray. Or maybe grab some crayons, paper and magazines and create a drawing or collage of things that express your heart. Maybe a recitation of a prayer from the early church would be helpful for you to memorize and pour over, allowing your heart to soak up the rich meaning in such carefully chosen words. Maybe reading Scripture with a prayerful attitude, personalizing it to where you are would be a helpful starting point. Maybe approaching a passage of Scripture intellectually, studying and digging into the symbolism and language brings you to a place of closeness with Christ Jesus. The sky is the limit!

In case you're interested in finding out more, I plan on using some of these books as references to prayer practices:

Prayer

Sacred Pathways

The Only Necessary Thing

Spiritual Disciplines Handbook