Right Place, Right Time
The following statistics come from a recent Pew study:
- · Gen Xers (born between 1965-80) who prayed daily in the late 1990s: 42 percent
- · Gen Xers who pray daily now: 54 percent
- · Boomers (born between 1946-64) who prayed daily in the early 1980s: 47 percent
- · Boomers who pray daily now: 62 percent
- · Time average American spends per day in religious and spiritual activities: 9 minutes (Average includes those who spend no time at all)
If you didn’t notice it before, go back and take a look at those stats again. They seem to indicate that the number of people from both age groups who prayed regularly grew over the passage of time. Is it because age does that? Is it because of the tumult (political and economic) of the last decade or so? I don’t know. Whatever the reason, more people want to pray now than they did in previous years.
Steve Farrar tells the following story in his book Standing Tall:
“A number of years ago, Dr. Robert Schuller was on a whirlwind book promotion tour, visiting eight cities in four days. It was an exhausting schedule in addition to the normal duties Dr. Schuller had on his shoulders as pastor of a large church. As he was going over his schedule with his secretary for his return home, she reminded him that he was scheduled to have lunch with the winner of a charity raffle. Schuller was suddenly sobered when he found out the winner of the raffle, for he happened to know that the $500 the person bid to have lunch with him represented that person's entire life savings. How did he know that? The person was his own teenage daughter.”
What do the two have in common? We find a way to do the things that we really want to do. If it’s important enough, if it there’s enough motivation, you and I will take the necessary measures to make something happen.
The same thing can be said for those who want to hear from God. Those of us who want God to speak into our lives will create opportunities for that to happen. God can speak anytime, anywhere. But we aren’t always able to hear Him, because we haven’t placed ourselves in a position to hear. As you’ll see this Sunday, Samuel hears God, because he’s in the right place at the right time.