What a blessing Wednesday was for me. I had the privilege to spend the day with Jimmy Mitchell, my long-time colleague and our new Youth & Family Minister at Marble Falls.
Jimmy and I enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at the world-famous Bluebonnet Cafe with George Offutt. George, a faithful member of the Marble Falls church and member of the Board of Trustees of ACU, is always such an encouragement.
Later in the morning, we drove up to Goldthwaite for lunch with Kerry Williams. Kerry and his family have served the Early church for the last three years as their Preaching Minister but will soon be moving to Florence, Alabama where Kerry will assume the pulpit of the 550-member Sherrod Avenue church.
During the meals and throughout the drive, it was just great to visit with Jimmy, to laugh together, to relive old memories, and to make dream of all the new memories God has in store for us.
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During the Winter Quarter, I have been blessed to teach the Middle School/High School class on Wednesday nights in our youth house adjacent to the church building. We typically have about 40 kids in there on Wednesdays.
What has deeply impressed me every Wednesday night is the depth of our young people. They love to be challenged and long to grow deeper in their faith. I was so impressed when I interviewed them about a profile for their new youth minister before we began searching. They spoke with one voice when they said, "We want a youth minister who is not afraid to go deep with us." I love that!
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As we been discussing ways to go deeper in our personal and corporate faith, tonight's discussion took us to the role of prayer. We compared the prayer of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4.9-10 with the very obscure prayer of Agur in Proverbs 30.7-9.
I asked the kids, "Why is that the prayer of Jabez became a best-selling book while little is ever said, much less a book written, about the prayer of Agur?"
If you look at the verses, the prayers come from two totally different paradigms. Jabez's prayer seeks the blessings of the Lord for the sake of Jabez's personal kingdom while Agur's prayer seeks the simple life -- just enough so that his faith isn't rocked by either too much or too little.
My prayer is that we would allow the prayer of Agur to serve as our model moreso than the prayer of Jabez. The simple plea of the simple life might simply allow our faith in God to flourish in the midst of a world of materialism and greed.
