A Year of Living Prayerfully

Heaven is full of answers to prayers that no one bothered to ask  -  Billy Graham

I just got back from a beautiful and expensive vacation to Hawaii.  There is such a beauty and mystery to the Hawaiian islands and the people are very gracious and happy.  I always pray before I buy a book and I prayed that if I was to buy another book while on vacation, the Lord would show me what to get.  So let me give the pre-story before I give the title of the book.

Many years ago I saw the movie The Year of Living Dangerously that starred Mel Gibson at an early age.  It was a provocative thriller set in Indonesia with Gibson as a reporter where communism was on the rise.  The movie stirs the imagination of confronting our conscience and the drive to do what's right while also the personal cost and sacrifices that comes from speaking or living the truth.

Several years ago, a best selling book came out called The Year of Living Biblically by A. Jacobs.  This was a combination of wit and humor, and the great difficulty and sometimes ludicrous ways it seems to try to follow all the Levitical laws in trying to be a biblical Jew.  The book provoked again the imagination to the cost of being different, counter-cultural, and sometimes just appearing stupid or looking like an idiot when it comes to following God.

This book was later followed by a Christian writer who wrote from a Pastor's perspective, The Year of Living Like Jesus.  If Jacobs book showed the painful reality of living a very disciplined life for God, Ed Dobson's book showed with similar wit, humor, and provocative thoughts what living for Jesus means, especially in the area of suffering.  To follow Jesus is not to follow him into a lifestyle of luxury and ease but into a lifestyle of tough discipleship and suffering.

So to my surprise, I was hoping to find a book somewhere on vacation at a Christian bookstore and found one at the first airport I was in waiting for my plane.  The book is A Year of Living Prayerfully by Jared Brock.  Again, Brock has a wit and charm and a very balanced approach to dealing with difficult issues that Christians face in life, especially in the area of prayer.  I bought the book excitedly as it reconfirmed what God has been telling me for this whole year that this year is to be a year of growing in prayer.

Christians want to be prayer warriors but like Jared Brock, often feel like prayer wanderers.  Brock goes on a prayer pilgrimage all over the world.  From New York City, to Israel, to Spain, Italy, France, England, and even North Korea which following the character of Mel Gibson, putting his faith on the line in a very dangerous place.  This year I pray we all go deeper in this area of prayer as we go deeper into a life with God.