Prayer Gardeners

I have a small black book that I've gotten in the habit of taking with me everywhere. I use it for everything- to do lists, jotting down contact information, capturing thoughts or quotes I don't want to lose. In every black book I have had, I set aside one page to keep my prayer list. I often tell people I will pray for them and don't want to forget the intention. A few times a week, in my morning prayers, I open up the book and make sure to go down the list.

Our community of St. Paul's has kept a prayer list for a long time. It is like a garden. Sometimes it is static and still; other times it is growing. Sometimes it is well tended, other times it becomes unkempt. The latter means that we lose touch with who we are praying for and who pit people on there.

Whatever the length of the prayer list or its state, there are people in our community who pray for every name every week. I know of at least three people who make praying the list part of their spiritual practice, and our first Discipleship Group prays the names together at least once a month.

In the last few weeks, our prayer list has gotten a new gardener. Chris Olson has a greed to tend to the list so that wherever it appears- on the Sunday bulletin insert, on a personally printed list or on our new website, it will be lively and accurate.

I'm so grateful for our common work of praying for one another and have faith that our prayers are doing more than we can ask or imagine.