cyberspace junkyard

S.O.S.

Golly, I'm really getting a lot of mileage out of that little acronym. I've succeeded in nick-naming two projects of mine at work - both of which have stuck - Project Harry (Payroll Wizard) and Project SOS (Super Online Strategy).

Anyway, tossing around the term SOS at work made me think about last year, when I was SOS-ing about once a month or so.

Well, SOS wasn't actually the full acronym - it was SOSNSBSB.
What does that stand for, you say?

Something Old
Something New
Something Borrowed
Something Blue

It was actually a prayer letter that I wrote on a monthly basis to about 12 close Christian friends of mine in 2001. It would take me a whole day to write, cos I'd change the letter to make it personal for the different people. Here's an excerpt from the email I initially sent out asking people if they'd like to be part of an SOS.

Basically, so I can pray for you each week, there are 4 things you can share with me...

Something OLD - an issue or event or point which you were previously thinking/praying/concerned about - this is like an update on things we have talked about before, how are things going, what has God taught you through it, what has changed since the last time we talked.

Something NEW - an exciting thing that is happening in your life that you can praise God for - could be a decision you have made, a change with work/home/study, just something that happened to you on the train to work - anything really!

Something BORROWED - a verse/passage from the bible that has encouraged or struck you. Something that you have learnt from God that you would like to share with me as well!

Something BLUE - an issue/decision/anything you are struggling with, or concerned over.

Make sense?
When you get the letter from me - just reply to it with your own points! That way we can pray for each other and continue to build up the body of Christ.

I read over some past SOSes (which I stopped putting in writing this year due to lack of time and just bring up if I happen to meet up with someone I haven't seen in a while). It got me thinking though, about how vital it is to pray for each other, or really just to pray in general. I'm a big advocate of analysing relationships. Well, analysing anything, really. But I've always maintained that a relationship can't work properly without open, honest and loving communication - both sharing and being open enough to listen. As a Christian - doesn't that mean that I, in fact, have a relationship with God? And that that relationship is the most important of my life? And that praying is just communicating with God? I'm sure that you as well as I could come up with countless excuses as to why we don't pray, but I have to wonder sometimes how my priorities can go so askew.

A fantastic analogy I read recently that seems to fit me so well is the "juggler".
I'm the kind of person who always has a million and one things going at once. Think of them all as juggling balls, if you will. It's hard to keep them all in balance. If you're not careful, balls will start flying all over the place and it's not long before you lose control. Try focussing too much on any one ball, and you'll drop the others. Try juggling twenty balls when you haven't even got the hang of 2 is pretty pointless. But (apparently) the secret to juggling is not to constantly watch every ball and try and keep control over everything which flies through the air and obviously answers to so much more than your juggling skills (gravity, for example!). It's to focus instead on the highest point - where every ball has to pass through before returning back to your hand. If you keep your eyes on that point, then all the balls will fall into place!

I don't know how true this actually is (I'm sure that you do need some skills at juggling!) but it's a good reminder for me anyway to keep my focus on things above!

I have *so* totally digressed from what I meant to say in this post (after having been interrupted several times) about prayer so will tune back in on Monday.

To all those who work in the financial industry - happy bank holiday! See you on Tuesday!