Game Changing: The Game with Minutes

When you start to read the classics of Christianity, as I did in Toronto and afterwards, you will find a lot of writing on prayer. The Kneeling Christian, several books by E.M Bounds, the Desert Fathers, and more all found there way into my hands. As I read I experienced a buildup of pressure to pray more. But, since I did not pray more, I also experienced a buildup of guilt. 

In so many ways I was still very young and immature in my faith. I was a university student still out of my depths in Religious Studies and therefore working hard at school, a volunteer student leader in a campus ministry, and I was playing way too many video games. On top of all of that, Kristina and I started dating in my second year of university. This was an entirely long distance relationship. She studied at Simon Fraser in Vancouver. I studied at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Neither of us had money for plane tickets, but we rode buses. 

In other words, my life was full of good things. But my life was full. I didn't pray a lot. Nor did I find the time I put into praying to be particularly enjoyable, enlightening, or fruitful. Hence not praying more, despite all of my reading. I had yet to learn the deeply important lesson that reading much and practicing little makes a waste of many books. 

In the midst of all of this two things happened. First, I ran across the name Frank C. Laubach. I am not sure where but he was recommended to me in some book or other. His name got on my list of people to look for when I visited used book stores. Second, Kristina and I discovered Pilgrim's Bookstore in Calgary (I spent summers at home in Calgary and Kristina came to visit when she could). 

Side Note: Book stores are amazing, especially used book stores. If you know a used bookstore and they make it through COVID-19 visit them as soon as they open. Buy a dozen books. Buy 4 for you, four to give away to friends and family, and four for a library (church or otherwise). Then leave a tip. 

Pilgrim's was an amazing used bookstore. Large and filled with great books. It was organized just enough to get one started but disorganized just enough that you had to hunt. Sure enough, we found several books by Laubach on the shelves. To this day, in my mind, Kristina got me this book. She insists we got it on a joint visit to Pilgrim's, that it wasn't a gift. Her memory is generally more reliable than mine so I believe her. And yet this book remains, in my mind, a gift from her. 

Thanks to Pilgrim's and, more, to Kristina, I read The Game with Minutes. 

So, what about this book? 

The Game With Minutes is certainly the shortest book on this list. In my tiny little pocket version it is 20 pages long. A pamphlet perhaps? An essay? What it lacks in size it makes up for in impact. 

The book is about one fairly simple idea: what would it take to try to spend every waking minute with God? To truly seek to live 1 Thess. 5:17? 

The answer: practice. More specifically, have a study hour each day and seek to make Jesus your companion every minute. 

To do the second of these, play the game with minutes. The game is to try to "win" more minutes today than you did yesterday. Then, to try to win more minutes each hour than you lose. Then keep progressing towards "winning" all the minutes. The short version of winning a minute is that you focus on God at least once during that minute. Not every second, but regularly in the flow of your thoughts. It is, in other words, a lighthearted way of speaking of the practice of the presence of God. 

Laubach goes in to more detail with 17 ways of winning a minute. The rest of the book is taken up with brief sections of tips on how to play this game, and win, during various other activities (in church, in play, in school, at work, on the train, etc.). 

Truthfully, I've never read a better book on practicing the presence of God. It completely changed my attitude towards prayer.  All of the problems I listed above, of being immature and too busy, were real problems but they weren't root problems. They were excuses. The root problem, if I'm honest, was that I had an unrealistic vision of what a good prayer life looked like and of what constituted 'real prayer.' In my imagination it looked like hours at a time alone in a dark closet. But no matter how many times I prayed alone in a darkened room, I didn't last long or get much out of it. My picture of prayer was entirely focused on the wrong things and only succeeded at pushing me into a guilty corner from which I saw no way out. 

(For the record, there is indeed great value in praying alone in a quiet space. I simply could not begin there)

Then along comes Laubach and he completely reframed my vision of prayer. The game idea was key for me. I enjoy games a lot. I particularly enjoy winning. When Laubach combined that with a spiritual discipline he gave me a place to start. My vision of praying was being alone in a dark room. Meanwhile, here was Laubach writing about praying on the bus (I took the bus!) and praying in school (I was in school!) and praying during play (I played!) and... you get the picture. Thanks to Laubach I started to pray and to seek God throughout each of my days. If I wrote about the full impact of that this blog post might be longer than the book it is reviewing. The short version is that I began to experience the presence of God throughout my days. 

Frank C. Laubach did a lot of good things in his lifetime. Have a look at his wikipedia page if you are interested. One of those things was to write a 20 page pamphlet that kick started my prayer journey in a way that no other author managed to do. I know several people for whom it had similar impact. I am confident there are many more. Re-reading this now, and thinking about that, I would be honored and deeply satisfied if anything I do as a pastor has a similar impact! Lord, grant me that grace. 

Note: This post is part of a series which I began here. To see all the posts in the series click the label at the bottom of this post "20yrs40bks".