Megan's prayer: Kutless' "Promise of a Lifetime"

And you show me how to grow
Through the change

One of the biggest changes of my life was going through a break up in college. I was in a serious relationship one day, and single the next day. I wasn't quite sure how to handle that change - I didn't know who to turn to, or really what to do with my life. Everything that had made sense was suddenly gone - my world was flipped, and I was scared.

I really didn't think I'd ever be happy again. I thought that was the end - I had missed my chance. Luckily, in those hard times, I turned to God. My relationship with him grew stronger everyday, and I could finally begin to see what was important in life. I had definitely changed. I understood that relationships aren't everything. I realized it was important to turn to God - to have him help me through the rough times.

Chris' prayer: Kutless' "Promise of a Lifetime"

I cannot concentrate at all tonight. My mind is all over the place and just will not settle down to pray this evening. I've restarted the song multiple times, always finding myself distracted before it ends. They aren't even important thoughts running through my mind; it is all just random unrelated musings. I wish that I could just turn it all off so that I can speak with my God, but it appears as if that isn't going to happen tonight.

It is times like this that I am thankful that I know You’re always there to my every prayer inside, even when I can't get it out.


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Katie's prayer: Kutless' "Promise of a Lifetime"

During today's song, I was reminded of a talk I heard a few months back by Mark Hart at the FOCUS conference. It's without a doubt, one of the best talks I've EVER heard. Below is the little exerpt that I was reminded of...

"Now this is the most dangerous prayer you can ever pray, and I challenge you, if you really feel like having your life wrecked. I mean YOUR LIFE wrecked so that as St. Paul says in the Galatians, so Christ's life could really come through you, you should pray that God would ruin your life. That's like the greatest prayer ever. 'God ruin my life so that all that is left of me is what's of you.' And if you really want to have a great prayer, pray 'God, I give you permission, PERMISSION, whole-hearted surrendering abandoning permission to remove anything in my life that's keeping me from sainthood. Lord God, here you go! Take it! Break it! I don't care.' That's a dangerous prayer. I started praying that, oh it hurts, but it's a beautiful kind of hurt." -Mark Hart

I remember thinking when I heard that, "that's a great prayer, great idea Mark, but I'm just not ready for that right now." I actually have this talk in my itunes, and have listened to it at least a dozen times since the conference. And every time I hear that part I think, "no, not right now" "it's not the right time" "I don't want my life ruined, I like how it's going" "I like my plan for my life, I don't want God to ruin that plan." All great examples of the STUPIDEST EXCUSE EVER! I mean, come on Katie, you're not ready to give God permission to help you follow his PERFECT plan for your life? You don't think it's the right time to give everything completly to God? You really think the life you have now is better than anything God could help you achieve by removing those things in your life that aren't that great? Seriously! That's stupid! But even though I realize that, I'm still sitting here thinking I'm not ready, it's not time, I like the way things are going, I like the plan I have for my life, I'm not ready for what God could have planned for me. I want so badly to have God ruin my life to make it better, make it into what He wants for me, but at the same time, I'm so afraid of what that might be.

God, will you help me fall apart? Help me to realize how much I need You to ruin my life? Take me into your arms and help me realize what you have planned is much better than anything I could ever plan? Help me find my way back to you? Show me how to grow through the changes you will make in my life? God, will you ruin my life and my plans so all that's left is You and what You want for me?

Will you help me fall apart
Pick me up, take me in your arms
Find my way back from the storm
And you show me how to grow
Through the change

Jen's prayer: Kutless' "Promise of a lifetime"

And you show me how to grow
Through the change

This is a beautiful song about how God is always there for us. It's a great reminder that he's with us in the pain and trials and will never leave. Something that struck me, though, is how I also need him through this growing period in my life. I feel like I'm going to be facing a lot of changes soon and I want God there with me as I grow and change. As I spend time with God these next few days, I think my prayer is thanking him that He is with me through this growth and change.

Catie's prayer: Kutless' "Promise of a Lifetime"

Putting my understanding aside

I find myself constantly having to do this with God. We can never fully understand God, we can never fully understand why He does the things He does, anything. Sometimes, I'm perfectly okay with that. Other times, it scares me to death. It took over two months for a daycare center I applied to over Christmas break to get back to me. In that time, I had decided to apply to the Totus Tuus job to teach Catechist. I was talking to my roommate about it, because it was just very stressful when it came to hearing back from all of them and which diocese I wanted to be in and whatnot. And at one point I told her, had the daycre called me back within a reasonable time, I would have just taken the job, stayed home for the summer and that would have been that. Instead, I decided to apply for this other job, did interviews with different diocese, and was very stressed about it. Laura, my roommate, told me that if God wanted me with Totus Tuus this summer, that was his way of getting me there, by not having the daycare back so soon since I would had taken it and not thought twice about doing Totus Tuus. Sometimes, in order to better do God's will we have to do that though. We have to put our own understanding, thoughts, plans aside in order to let God come in and let God do what God does best. It is only then that we can best do God's will for our lives.