just [ONE] prayer

LifeChurch.tv, (one of the most innovative churches in the country), is partnering with hundreds of local churches globally to do a message/talk/sermon series simultaneously called: ONE Prayer. The premise of the series is, "If God would answer only 'ONE prayer' for the church at large, what would you pray?"

Let me explain it this way. You're walking down the street and something shiny catches the corner of your eye. You go towards it and you see a beautiful, but dirty glass . This is not just any ordinary bottle, because you've never seen anything quite like it before. You think...hey, this bottle just may be worth something. So you quickly pick it up, hide it under your jacket and hurry home with your new found treasurer. As you get home and begin to wipe the dirt off of your new find suddenly, a genie appears from out of the bottle (I know, this is kind of weird but use your imagination here). The genie promises you as its new master ONE wish (sure it's usually three but we're in hard times wishes are expensive).

What do you wish for? It's easy when you have three wishes but only ONE. It's hard to come up with just ONE wish. What if you blow it and wish for the wrong thing--there are no do-overs. With ONE wish you've got to think through the pros and cons of your wish. Let me see should I wish for millions of dollars...the intelligence of Albert Einstein...the most beautiful spouse in the world (give up--I've already beat you to her)? OK, all of those seem shallow so let me use my ONE wish for something a little more humanitarian...a cure for cancer or AIDS...maybe I should wish for an end to world hunger or poverty. This ONE wish thing is harder then it seems. I think you get the point. Having to choose ONE prayer is something like only getting ONE wish without the genie and the bottle.

There are so many concerns for the Church. So many ways that we fall short of being the spotless bride of Christ. So what should I pray for... faith... love... power... purity... relevancy... authenticity... selflessness... audaciousness... passion... effectiveness... courage... unity... urgency... revolution... boldness? So many choices and only ONE prayer.

As I've been thinking about the "church at large" and the community of faith that I journey with my ONE prayer is different for the two...for the church at large I pray that WE be ONE Body of Christ. ONE- mainline & evangelical... ONE- protestant, catholic & orthodox... ONE- traditional & contemporary... ONE- in the East & in the West. I would pray that we worship ONE- LORD...confess ONE- FAITH and believe in ONE- BAPTISM.

My ONE prayer for the faith community that I journey with is this: that we discover and or re-discover that Jesus really loves us. I know we learned this when we were little... I still know the words by heart--Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tell me so. Here's the deal, we may know that Jesus loves us in a mental, aspirational, surface kind of way, But, I'm convinced that most of us don't really believe it when it counts. Most of us, have no problem believing that Jesus loves us when we're good little boys and girls but, what about when we mess up? Does Jesus love us in the gutter of our lives...when we've purposely turned our backs on him...when we've done what any REAL Christian would never do? What about when we skip church, our devotions, prayer and giving? Does He keep on loving us when we won't forgive, hate those who hurt, and live different in the day then we live in the night?

All our lives we've been loved with conditions. There's been a price to pay for love. Sometimes it's meant meeting someone's expectations. While other times its cost us what we didn't really want to give. We've experienced love that last as long as we reciprocate. Love that had a price tag to costly to pay and too painful to keep. So it's no wonder we hear about Jesus loving us and think sure...OK. Love or the lack there of from parents, friends, acquaintances or even the playground crew when we were little has shaped our view of God, family, friends and the world. Our understanding of love even shapes our image of self. You see why it's so important that we get that Jesus love us.

My ONE prayer for the faith community that I journey with is that we understand at a visceral level that Jesus loves us no matter __WHAT__ (u fill in the blank)? The apostle Paul fills in the blank with these words... TROUBLE... HARD TIMES... HATRED ... HUNGER.... HOMELESSNESS... BULLYING THREATS... BACKSTABBING... THE WORST SINS LISTED IN THE BIBLE... are you getting it Jesus LOVES U(S)! Here are some more words to fill in the blank... LIVING... DEAD... ANGELIC.... DEMONIC... TODAY... TOMORROW... HIGH... LOW... THINKABLE... UNTHINKABLE. I think there's ONE word that sums up Jesus' view on what can separate us from his love...the ONE word is NOTHING!

MY ONE prayer for the "church at large" is that WE are ONE I'll write more about that next week. My ONE prayer for my faith community is that we would realize that...WE-R-LOVED by the ONE who is love! How's that for ONE prayer? -jfhey-ii