Okay, I’ll admit it, I rarely pray for my work. I thrive on challenges and being busy, so if something is stressful, prayer is the second option after a deep breath. (“I know I raised her better than this,” I hear my mother weeping.)
Monday, my status message said that I planned on having a good work week. Yeah, you know where this is going.
My first problem came when an email attachment was too large for Google’s preordained 25MB attachment size. Yes, my file used all 25MB. It was like I was sending a pictorial version of the 9/11 Commission report. Anyway, in an attempt to reduce the file size from War and Peace to Tortoise and the Hare, my computer froze and I had to stare at the Spinning Beach Ball of Death — Mac’s version of the Blue Screen of Death. I kid you not, the Word application was frozen and unable to quit, but the computer wasn’t reading it as being open. Can anyone say “Digital Zombie”? This was just one of many irritations I faced that morning.
I had some options at this point. Go stark raving mad within the tiny walls of my cube. Refuse to send the email at all and whine to my supervisor about the lack of file size allowed (the adult version of pouting). Or try to figure out how to get the application out of limbo. Then, the light bulb in my head went off. “Hey, you know, I could pray about this.”
I know you’re on the edge of your seat waiting for the finale. The prayer paid off! Maybe nothing miraculous happened in my hard drive, but my attitude didn’t plummet. Even in my frustration, I found it humorous that I’d been so positive, and now it wasn’t even noon and I had a week’s worth of teeth-gritting annoyances to solve. Laughing is always better than running screaming through the halls of Human Resources.
I did find the Force Quit shortcut (Mac’s version of CNTL+ALT+DELETE), and closed Word. Reopened it; reduced the file size so the pictures were now grainy and blurred but able to be uploaded to the email, and I was ready to take on the next challenge with the Lord’s help. No pouting involved.
Fruit from the Olive Tree 
I wrote a simple computer program and dropped it into my computer’s startup in response to John Burke’s 60-60 experiment (“I’m challenging you to this 60-60 Experiment for the next 60 days. AS you go through your days, seek a continuous conversation with God, using every 60 minute beep of the watch (phone) as a reminder to reorient yourself into a continuous conversation of willingness.” –Soul Revolution). Every hour, the program launches an ambiguous popup message, which I understand as a reminder that it’s time to pray.
After the ‘experiment’ ended, I had found that I really needed God’s help to do my job, and that prayer was a vital part of my day. As Christian’s, it’s awesome that we can call on the creator of the entire universe to be with us throughout the day and to help us work harder for Him.