Prayers at Jubilee Conference
BY JAMIE HAR
FEAT. ZACHARY LEE & CARLEY ESCHLIMAN
Two weekends ago, a group of Claritas students attended the Coalition for Christian Outreach’s Jubilee Conference in Pittsburgh. Named after the biblical year of Jubilee in the book of Leviticus, this conference attracts thousands of college students eager to live out their faith in practical ways, from on-campus to in the workplace, each year (for more information, check our their website).
This year, our very own editor-in-Chief Zachary Lee and Managing Editor Carley Eschliman were privileged with writing prayers for their respective majors (English and Atmospheric Sciences) that were read aloud on stage. It was an amazing opportunity to publicly commit their vocations to God and ask that He cover “every square inch” of their studies. View the transcripts for each prayer below!
Zachary Lee’s Prayer for the English Major
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for being a God of words, One who spoke the very universe into existence. From nothing, you made everything, and with but a breath, you created beauty from the formless void. Truly, God, all things were made through You, and without You, not anything could be made that was made. God, how majestic and beautiful is your creation; it is the highest art and poetry. Thank you God for creating human beings in your own image and for viewing us not only as good, but very good. And, even when humankind, your greatest composition, rebelled and fell away, our rebellion did not diminish your power or glory. You have glory apart from us.
God, you are the creator of syntax, meaning, diction, and grammar. You have given us the gift of speech — adjectives, nouns, verbs, metaphor, and the power of language — to ascribe glory to You. Forgive us when we use it to destroy and tear down rather than build up.
Thank you that in our major, we get to study so many wise men and women, authors and composers, who have written such a vast canon of literature. I pray that we use our gifts not to glorify ourselves but to lift up the Name of the Lord in praise, poetry, story, and song. As we read and analyze the great works written by human hands, let us come to your Word with even more hunger. The authors we read try to make sense of the world, and as we do the same, let our searching lead us to your story in which true meaning and hope is found. Let us come to Your word with hearts ready to receive and obey Christ, the Word of Truth and Life.
God, thank you for including us in your gospel story. Thank you for entering our tragic narrative as the Word made flesh who dwelt among us. We are a sinful, stiff-necked people, destined to a life apart from You. This would have been our fate. Yet, in your mercy, you rewrote our ending and sent your Son to die for us. Because of this, we rejoice. Evil does not have the final say. God, let us dream; let us be innovative; let us turn to you for our ultimate source of inspiration and strength. You are the author and perfecter of our faith. Let each of the chapters that we have in your great story, the greatest one ever told, be testaments to your faith and goodness.
In Your Most Glorious Name We Pray,
Amen
Carley Eschliman’s Prayer for the Atmospheric Science Major
O Lord of the Earth and Atmosphere,
We thank you for the intricate and intentional ways in which you manifest yourself in the very air we breathe. We praise you for the intelligent design that leaves us with no doubt of the existence of a Creator. The careful balance of molecules and radiation and forces have been dictated by You and You alone. Lord, may we be brought closer to your Truth and see more of your Goodness in every raindrop, snowflake, and cirrus cloud. May even the terrors of natural disasters — hurricanes, tornados, and the like — remind us of your character. You are perfectly merciful and perfectly just, the God of both rainy and sunny days. Allow the posture of our hearts to be one that is acceptable to you as we receive our daily forecasts and predictions. Keep us from having a gaze that is solely concerned with the future; with each day, may we appreciate and rejoice in the processes and complicated mechanisms that lead to the state of the atmosphere.
Guide atmospheric scientists to submission to the Holy mysteries of the world. Lead us to both a contentment and a striving that are free from sin and rooted in your Truth. Allow us to view uncertainty and inaccuracy as a stepping stone to sanctification and proof of Your progressive revelation. As we communicate climate science, make our speech point back to Your intention for Your people’s interaction with the Earth; keep the Cultural Mandate at the front of our minds. Save us from debilitating discouragement as we struggle to convince the public of our scientific findings. May we be reminded of the double obscurity that each of us are subject to, an obscurity of both ignorance and sin. Have our interactions with those outside of our scientific community — regardless of the outcome — be characterized by grace and patience. Cultivate community amongst atmospheric scientists; give Christians in this field the courage to proclaim their faith in a way that contributes to scientific discussion. Let us be a field of Godly wonder, first and foremost. May we never separate your hand from the phenomena that we attempt to categorize and classify for our lives’ work.
Amen