Pray for us... on October 15

So glad to get back to the blogosphere! As the fall semester ramps up (mine starts this week), I'm asking for readers to pray for Christian faculty, and faculty & teachers in general... on October 15.

Why October 15? Well, let's take a journey...

I once asked for prayer for effective first impressions for the sake of the gospel just before the semester began. I might ask for the same thing this semester, but since then, I've come to realize two things...

1. While many Christians will pray for professors & teachers at the beginning of the semester, there's at least a small sentiment among non-academics that says something like, "Pray for them? Didn't they just have the entire summer/all of December off?" (Granted, anyone who has talked to me over the last four months knows I didn't have an easygoing summer after being asked by my university to serve as Blackboard administrator.) I'm not going to address the issues of nine-month versus twelve-month contracts and hourly pay versus salary and limited classroom access and the need to catch up on scholarly expectations that impact teachers' and professors' lives, but I will acknowledge that, to an outsider, it probably does seem a little odd for us to feel such a weighty need after summer, and that we typically do come at the beginning of the academic year with renewed energy.

2. While the beginning of the year is important, as I mentioned above, we do generally come at it with a relatively high level of energy. And here's the second thing I realized: The other time (besides the beginning) that Christians typically call for prayer for teachers & professors is at the end of the semester or academic year. "Lord, help them to finish well," I've heard more than one pastor/elder pray. This most recent year, though, it occurred to me, "I started finishing around the middle of the semester. That's when I needed prayer and support."

The middle of the semester is when the despair sets in, when you stare down the gaping chasm of how ineffective you've been this semester (prompted by mid-term grades, students asking the same questions every week, students asking no questions every week, receiving last semester's course evaluations, realizing that you haven't budged on that to-do list on your board while tenure evaluation creeps closer), leading to the existential crisis of wondering if this pursuit is worth spending your life on. The situation never really is as bad as you feel, but that feeling (as my wife likes to remind me) is real. The end of the semester actually has a natural burst of energy thanks to the relief of escaping that chasm once more, such that the low point in motivation and energy and faith is somewhere in the middle.

So, this semester, I'm asking you to pray for teachers & professors... on October 15. If you want to pray for them now, that's super! But around about October 15 is when we'll need it in a very poignant way. So, go ahead and open your calendar, create a new appointment, set the date for October 15 (If you make it an all day event, be sure to set the reminder for a non-integer number of days, so it won't ding at midnight.), and maybe even paste in the link to this article.

And if you feel like it, maybe set aside some time that day to take out a teacher or professor you know (whom you probably won't have seen very often when October 15 rolls around) for lunch or dinner or coffee. (Breakfast is great, too, but be prepared to wake up early...) There's a major criticism of prayer these days that those who believe in prayer don't actually do anything to help the situation they're praying about. (I have a good deal of empathy for this criticism, but that's another topic for another day.) If you're praying for teachers & faculty to be encouraged and energized, offering time with a friend outside the academic world is a great way to be an answer to your own prayer request.

Well, I need to go open my calendar to October 15...

Here's what I said...

Earlier this week, I posted about how I was given the opportunity to deliver the invocation and benediction prayers at my university's faculty recognition dinner. I appreciate the feedback and prayers that so many friends supported me with.

Below is the text of what I prayed. The invocation is mostly selections from Ecclesiastes; I wrote the benediction as a response to the question, "What do I want to pray for?" After writing them, I realized that they are almost exactly what I would have prayed at a Christian event, which encouraged me that I was being genuine. I received a lot of positive feedback and thanks from my colleagues afterward, which encouraged me that I had served them and honored them. (Of course, if anyone was offended, I doubt they would have said so right at the end of the event!)

Invocation:

A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own work. This, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race [and university faculty in particular]. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their work—[all their teaching, all their scholarship, and all their university service]—this is the gift of God.

And so, God, I pray that tonight would be a time of encouragement, rest, and renewal, so that we could bring to a satisfying finish this academic year of opportunities that You’ve given to us. Amen.

Benediction:

God, I thank you for all of the reasons we have to celebrate tonight.

Thank you for colleagues like Captain Terrell* and [new POY]** who exhibit such care for their students and enthusiasm for their fields.

Thank you for our administrators and staff who guide this university.

And thank you for the opportunity to interact with the world you have created and the students that you have brought our way. Give us a weekend of good rest and the strength and passion to finish this semester well. Amen.

*2010-2011 Professor of the Year

**2011-2012 Professor of the Year, named just minutes before the benediction

What would you say?

This week, I was asked to deliver the invocation and benediction at my university's faculty recognition dinner (taking place Friday, 3/25). This honor typically falls to a Dean/VP/someone-way-higher-up-than-a-pretenure-faculty-member.

Such an activity always presents an interesting choice (for people of all faiths or no faith): If I pray specifically after my own faith, I run the risk of alienating and/or offending others; however, if I make a vague "catch-all" prayer, I feel personally insincere (and run the risk of alienating and/or offending those of my faith).

To describe it another way, I have to ask myself the questions: Have I built up enough trust with my colleagues that, if I pray specifically to my own faith, they will trust me to not be proselytizing? Or do I still need to build up their trust by not running the risk of offending them?

I have an idea of how I'll take this opportunity to "be all things to all people;" please pray that I'll have a clear sense of how to do so and deliver honor where honor is due.

I'd also like to see what the blogosphere thinks. (Yes, this is a can of worms, but you need those to catch fish.) So, what would you say?

I'm off to Washington!

(I've enjoyed saying that all day...)

Tonight, I leave with a group of students and faculty to participate in the EPA's National Sustainable Design Expo. Our students are presenting the results of their (EPA funded!) residential water reuse system. I'm looking forward to it!

You can pray...

1. for our safety.
2. for this to be an opportunity for me to live out God's love and grace to my students & colleagues.
3. for our students to represent their project and their university as they compete with 41 other teams for a second phase of funding.

I'll post pictures to my Picasa page.

Have a great weekend!