TWELVE WORDS, TEN MINUTES, THIRTY DAYS

What would it take to find silence for ten minutes everyday? 

No phone. No email. No Facebook. No Twitter. No Pinterest. Nothing. Just silence. 

In this time it would be God, you, your breath and twelve words. 

This is what I am proposing for the month of June. What if everyday, for thirty days you spent ten minutes like this? That would only be 300 minutes out of the 43,200 minutes that are in the entire month. 

By now you may be wondering what I am prattling on about – allow me to explain. 

Not too long ago George Stavros from Boston University decided to do a study with over one hundred people for thirty days. The study asked participants to pray the “Jesus Prayer” for ten minutes everyday for thirty days. 

Before he began his observation of those who participated he measured things like anxiety, depression, anger, hostility and feelings of inferiority. After the thirty days he measured the same things, and found significantly reduced levels in all the negative categories for the participants. 

His findings were so strong that he suggested his colleagues keep the “Jesus Prayer” in mind as a healing intervention. Imagine that; prayer brought healing. 

Now, you may have a few questions. 

First, “What is the Jesus prayer?” It is a traditional prayer that is twelve words long, it is simply: 

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, 

Have mercy on me, a sinner. 

When you pray this prayer you inhale deeply while praying the first line and exhale as you pray the second line. 

Second, you may wonder if June is a special month. No, but do you remember that rhyme from elementary school? “Thirty days has September, April, June and November …” It has thirty days - a start and an end. For many this makes doing something like this seem possible. However, my hope is that this will become a daily rhythm for many of us extending far beyond June. 

Third, why do this at all? I have contemplated this for some time. Then I re-read a book by my friend and mentor Ed Dobson titled The Year of Living Like Jesus. In it he tells a story of a pilgrim traveling in Russia who learned the Jesus Prayer and began saying it twelve thousand times everyday (for the record that would be more than ten minutes). As he traveled he reflected, saying: 

"When the cold air chills me, I begin saying the prayer with greater intensity and I warm up. When hunger begins to overcome me, I begin saying the name of Jesus Christ more frequently … When I become sick and feel rheumatic pain in my back and legs, I pay greater attention to the prayer and I do not feel the pain. When someone offends me, I remember how sweet the Jesus prayer is and the offense and anger disappear and I forget everything."

This causes me to wonder what I will say at the end of thirty days. 

For as much as Stavros’ observations showed the power of prayer, it also showed an indispensible part of the prayer was the community around it.  I invite you to join me in this. Let me know if you wish to join – perhaps together we will all learn of the power of prayer.