A Juggler's Prayer

​Darren and I always say that we should pray right before our shows, but this doesn’t happen very often.  Usually before a show we are rushing around trying to make sure everything is set up right. Depending on the event, we might be running around letting people know that a show is about to start. If people are already sitting and waiting for the show to start I usually will start showing them some tricks I’m working on that aren’t in the show yet. For some reason I always feel weird when people are just waiting for the show to start and we are already there also waiting for the show to start. Anyway, we almost never have a backstage area or something like that where we are alone before a show.  I’m not complaining because I do like meeting our audience before and after the show, but it would be nice to have a quiet time to pray before shows.

This might seem strange, but I was thinking that the easiest way to ensure that we take the time to pray for each show might be to work it into the show. A lot of our ideas are essentially seeing something that already exists and doing a juggling version of it. Maybe we could do a juggling version of a prayer, but I am not sure what that would look like. I only have one idea that might work right now. Someday I would like to come up with a juggling routine based around the rhythm and sound of our juggling props(it could be balls, clubs, sticks, or maybe a combination of various props).  It would be something kind of like that old Nike commercial where they make a rhythm by dribbling basketballs and squeeking sneakers. It is possible that we could work a prayer into a song of sorts to go with our rhythm.

 Besides the fact that neither Darren or I have any kind of musical background, I  saw one other potential problem with this routine. Anything that we put into the show will be planned out and practiced over and over again. I wondered if rehearsing would somehow make the prayer less real. Then I thought about the Lord’s Prayer. This prayer is planned out by Jesus, Himself, and given to us so that we can practice/rehearse praying.  The Lord’s Prayer might be the ideal starting place for working out our jugglers’ prayer, but when I thought about the Lord’s Prayer I realized that there is a lot to it.

 Maybe instead of a prayer routine, we could have a prayer show.  We could start with a praise routine (Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name). Then we could have a routine about God’s Kingdom(Thy Kingdom come). This would be followed by a routine about God’s will (Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.) A food routine would be an easy one to come up with, we already have the breakfast routine (Give us this day our daily bread.) The obvious thought for sin/forgiveness(And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us.) is some sort of stealing routine, but it could also be a chance to make the show a little more personal which was one of the requests from the Prodigal Fun surveys.  Not sure what a temptation routine would be(and lead us not into temptation), but the word lead would probably be the key to the direction of this act.  A replacement act where evil was removed from a pattern might make sense(But deliver us from evil.) Finally, the show would end with another praise routine(For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever Amen).

As I was writing this, I looked up the Lord’s Prayer and saw the verses leading up to it 

“Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you."

The idea of doing a prayer show is much closer to praying on the street corners for people to see than it is to praying in secret, so maybe this whole thing is a bad idea.  I don’t know if the idea of a prayer based show is necessarily bad, I still think we could come up with a worthwhile routine about prayer. However, I don’t think that should replace taking time to be with God and pray before shows.