of plants and prayer

Over the long weekend, a plant in my coworker Susan's office got a little fried in the closed room with the heat on. Its dry, heavy leaves weighed down its pale green stems so that it looked more like a salad that someone dropped in the dirt yesterday than a healthy, vital plant.

Mark said, "Put it in Dave's office! It's sunnier in there and the plant needs sun!" So we did. A couple days later, still wilt-y salad.

Susan did what, to me, seemed like putting the plant out of it's misery. She cut off all of the leaves, except one particularly small, vaguely healthy looking one.

Here's the crazy thing -- literally within hours, the plant perked up! The stems were standing almost vertical, pointed right to heaven. I couldn't help but think about Jesus shouting, "Lazarus, come out!"

How can cutting leaves off a plant revive life? Leaves are the powerhouses of a plant where photosynthesis occurs in earnest. I'm no biologist, but I am an engineer and I understand conservation of energy. My best guess is that the dried up and whithered leaves were consuming as much energy as they produced. Cutting a few things out of one's life, even those things like leaves which should be able to give life, could lead to an invigoration, even a resurrection, if those things are just consuming as much as they produce.

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For a while, my prayer life felt dried and withered. It just didn't feel like I got as much out as I was putting in.

I went to a leadership retreat with The District Church over the weekend, and that sparked a change. Through worship on Sunday after we returned, especially singing "The Summons" at Capitol Hill UMC, I received new vision. I've decided to spend 40 days in prayer about my call. 40 days is a special time frame for God -- Noah's 40 days of rain while in the ark, Jesus' 40 days of fasting in the desert, and the disciples' 40 days with Jesus after the resurrection to name a few. To me, the major thrust of this year will be discerning where God wants me next and how, if possible and God willing, I can locate the intersection of engineering, faith, and the good of creation and humanity.

With this new vision, I think I succeed, at least in part, in cutting out some my normal patterns of prayer that I easily fall into, and instead replaced it with focused, intent prayer on something that is intensely personal and important to me. What areas of your life are your pouring yourself in, and not getting an abundant return? Will you be able to make a cut and revive some life?

Prayers:

• Through March 6, I'll be focusing on prayers over calling. Please join me! Let me know how I can be praying for your call. We all have one!
• There have been many setbacks for my young adult brothers and sisters in mission -- placement sites collapsing, visa problems, and difficulty getting plugged into community. They need stability so they can do God's work and live out their calling.
• I'm just joyful (and privileged) to have a supervisor, placement site, and community which I've really grown to love. I thank God for it and hope I can steward the opportunity well.