I was so excited about everything I had read in Waking the Dead ..... so psyched ....ok then.... where is he going next?

My balloon deflated with a great rush of air.... the wind came out of my sails.... my ship stopped........ just sat there kind of rocking in the water.... saying  "Lord, I don't believe this." Eldredge was telling me to pray this wrote prayer  every day... their entire ministry staff prays this prayer...... every  day.

Oh boy.... did I ever get grumpy. I started ranting ...."Lord, this is ridiculous.... I haven't prayed wrote prayers in a zillion years. What is it Lord? This guy Eldredge a Catholic  or something? ... and on and on I ranted away." I finally  took a breath and the Lord finally  got a chance to respond.

"Philip....pray the prayer."

You need to know that I was raised in Catholicism.... I mean the 1940's kind where the highest good was to be a priest or a nun. Being a guy, I did not qualify for being a nun, so that left me the priesthood. By the time I got thru Catholic grade school and a 4 year Jesuit High School plus 1 yearof Jesuit College, I knew, I mean I knew  there was no way anyone as depraved as I was could ever make it as a priest. Another few years of sinning went by and I turned my back on it all and figured if I was going to hell, I was going to have a good time before I got there!

I don't mean this in any derogatory way. I know lots of good Catholics where they really found Jesus and have a good relationship with Him. I'm just saying that it didn't work for me.

Now, here I was with the Lord telling me to pray a wrote prayer  every day! Whenever the Lord tells me to do something, I do try to just say "Yes, Lord", but I really struggled with this, made a few more objections..... this time  He interrupted me and just gently repeated the same words.....

"Philip, pray the prayer."

So I did. It was astounding.

:)