Spiritual Energy for Others

I made two stops on my way into work today in order to find my sugar free Rockstar. I drink an energy drink most days these days. My reason is the same that my former colleague in the Redemptorists, Greg Meyers, gave for putting STP in his gas tank: "It feels good to do it." I believe this applies to spiritual energy as well. Like many others, I've personally experienced the benefits of others directing their "spiritual energy" (more commonly called "prayers") in my direction. The most significant event of this in my life was the consequence of an accident I experienced in 1964 at the age of 20. I was riding on top of a hay truck at 35 miles an hour when a low branch over the highway swept me head first onto the pavement. The result was a concussion, fractured skull, and separated shoulder when I landed on my head and right shoulder. I was unconscious when they rushed me to the first hospital but came to on the way to the second. The next day the doctors were concerned enough about me to summon my parents from a city 500 miles away. But Monday the neurologist treating me walked in and said, "I've never seen anyone improve so much over a weekend." What happened? I didn't receive any drugs or treatment. I was only medically observed. But I did have a large number of believing people praying for me continuously over that weekend. The technical name for this kind of prayer in "intercessory prayer". That's the name of what we're doing when we pray for others. This is one of two prayer practices that fueled the start and incredible growth of the YMCA movement. Luke 22:31-32 details Jesus' intercessory prayer for Peter and the other disciples. In praying for others, we follow the example of our Teacher. Up in the top left hand corner you see my visual version of intercessory prayer I just completed for strengthening the "C" in our greater Omaha YMCA. This "doodle prayer" is explained in the book Praying in Color by Sybil MacBeth. MacBeth describes this as a visual way to be more faithful to our promise to pray for others.

1. Put yourself in God's presence.


2. Draw a shape or letter on the page.


3. Put a name inside the shape of a person, event that you are praying for.


4. Add details.


5. Color.


6. Hold this person, event, etc. in your mind's eye as you hold yourself in God's presence.


7. Perhaps add words of prayer intention to your doodle.

MacBeth suggests that a way to bring ourselves back to our intercessory prayer and back to God's loving presence throughout the day is to carry that drawing with us or put it on our desk.

Prayer can be fun! We need only remember how our Teacher, Jesus, welcomes children in Matthew 19:13-15.

Another visual prayer practice is putting these doodles or pictures of individuals we want to pray for in one of the small 4"x6" photo booklets and referring to it in this same way throughout a day or number of days. (For gadget nuts like me you might put them on your phone or IPad).

Back to where I started with energy drinks. My real motivation for drinking energy drinks almost every day comes from my sister-in-law, Marilyn, a professional nutritionist. Without knowing I occasionally drank energy drinks, she did a nutritional assessment with me and, believe it or not, recommended one of the main ingredients in energy drinks, taurine, as a daily nutritional supplement. Intercessory prayer, like taurine at a chemical level, will energize.