Imagine having been one of the 12 disciples. You've been traveling, eating, sleeping, walking 100's of miles, and listening/watching him respond to the crowds of people that have followed him. Now, after three years of living so closely connected he tells the twelve of you that he will soon not be with you; that he will endure some kind of suffering and in fact die. With that, he begins to pray: for himself, for the twelve of you, and for all those who will one day believe and follow him. What do you suppose he would pray? What would he ask Abba for?

In John 17 we get a glimpse of this. And some things seem facinating to me:

• ⁵And now, Father, glorify me with your very own splendor, the very splendor I had in your presence before there was a world. [Do you think Jesus had memories of his "pre-existance?"]
• ¹⁰Everything mine is yours, and yours mine, and my life is on display in them. [what does your life display of God?]
• ¹⁵I'm not asking that you take them out of the world but that you guard them from the Evil One. [Jesus refuses to pray for us to be plucked out of the messiness of our world...but rather that as we live as a light in the midst of darkness we may be protected from the Evil One. Have you experienced God using you in uncomfortable ways? Have you felt safe and protected?]
• ²⁶I have made your very being known to them--who you are and what you do--and continue to make it known, so that your love for me might be in them exactly as I am in them. [Are you continuing to discover and fall in love with Abba's "very being"--who he is and what he does? Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and remember that God's love and in fact Jesus himself, the Embodiment and Incarnation of Love lives in you.]

What is most amazing to me (at this point) is this prayer:

²¹The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind--
just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
²²The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they'll be as unified and together as we are--
²³I in them and you in me. Then they'll be mature in this oneness, and give the godless world evidence
that you've sent me and loved them
in the same way you've loved me.

How amazing is it that Jesus would pray that his beloved community of followers would be as intimately connected and unified as he and the Abba are!?! It just blows me away. I doubt that any of our most idealistic-utopian dreams about community take it quite as far as Jesus has taken it here. So it begs some questions that perhaps you'll want to consider and post comments about:

• Where/when have you feel most known/loved/accepted/and unified with the people around you?
• How can your life contribute to this vision and prayer of Jesus so that it may come true for our youth group?
• Is there someone who is angry with you (or whom you are angry with) that you ought to reconcile with?
• Is there someone you might befriend, inviting them into God's community?

You guys are wonderful friends; among the beautiful gifts that I am most thankful for in this life. I see God begining this kind of work among us; drawing us closer to one another and closer to himself. I pray that we might grow in our trust of one another as we grow in the ways we honor one another and prove ourselves to be trustworthy. And I also pray, as Jesus did (see verses 21-23 above) that when friends and folks from our community see the way we love each other and the ways that we are united...they might be convinced, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the Father has sent Jesus and that they are the beloved of God.

P.S. If the use of imagination in prayer (as we used on Sunday) is interesting to you, check out this link. There is even a prayer there to try (regarding Zacchaeus). Try it.