Playing Words with Friends with Nancy Leigh

In the course of my two-day “True Woman” experience, I heard Nancy Leigh DeMoss mention that she liked to play Words with Friends. And in that moment, an obsession was born. What if, just what if, I had the chance to play Words with Friends with Nancy Leigh DeMoss?

I tweeted about it. I prayed about it. I sat in a prayer circle and meditated about it. And I laughed about it. A lot. But never in a million years did I think it would happen.

I have to stop for a moment and explain. A few years ago, an amazing invention called the World Wide Web came into existence. Shortly thereafter, a man by the name of Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook. We humans became connected through a sick but addictingly enticing medium called social networking. We kept up with each other through pictures, albums, 140 character updates, and the world as we know it started to feel like it was spiraling out of control.

One such social medium that infected our gene pool is social gaming. Not only could we keep up with people and see them at their worst through FaceTime and Skype, now we could also play games with them through their phones. It threatened to steal our peace of mind, but we were already hooked.

Back to Nancy Leigh. Not only did she share my addiction for words, but she had the gumption to take her iPhone up on the stage with her while 8,200 women listened to her speak, then sheepishly turned the buzzer off to keep her from being distracted. Now that was some cool mojo from the most unexpected source.

So on this particular weekend, I prayed that Nancy Leigh DeMoss would play Words with Friends with me. It was kind of a joke. I got my share of laughs out of it. I barely believed it. But I did make a circle in the ground and pray for it.

As the two-day conference came to an end, I stood with my friend Tina in the longest Starbucks line known to mankind since the last True Woman Conference. I huffed and I puffed, then I mumbled out loud that the wait wouldn’t seem so long if I were playing Words with Friends with my “friend” Nancy Leigh DeMoss. And found myself complaining to three young beautiful gals who claimed to be Nancy Leigh’s nieces.

My friend Tina believed them. I did not. I’m the Eeyore in the group. I hold out on the good to keep from tripping when the bottom falls out as it usually will. Thirty-eight minutes and many laughs later, I parted ways with my new friends, chuckling with Tina over the incongruity of the morning. I had gained three new friends but still had no doubt in my mind that I was being punk’d.

Six hours later my phone buzzed. My eyes couldn’t believe it. I was being invited to play Words with Friends with my new “friend” Nancy Leigh DeMoss. No way. Seriously? This wasn’t happening to me.
I was being played. This was a joke. My friend Tina was behind it. She’d plotted with those three honest looking girls and they were having the time of their life laughing at me. But, the game continued, and little by little, I started to believe.

Now the real angst began. What if I don’t play right? How long should I wait between words? Do I let her win, or do I try to win? What if I interrupt her quiet time and become responsible for the demise of her spiritual focus? Ridiculous? Of course it is! Crazy? You better believe it!

But it occurred to me that when it comes to prayer, I have a couple of issues that cloud my vision:

• I don’t really believe God will answer.
• When God does answer my prayers positively, I let fear keep me from rejoicing.

Do you ever see that same pattern in your prayer life? You pray, because you know you should, but never in your life do you really expect God to answer. That God would answer you seems almost too good to be true. You believe in your head that God hears you, but your heart refuses to make the leap of faith, lest you find yourself crushed with disappointment.

And when God does shock you by giving you what you think you don’t deserve, you’re afraid to believe it. You’re sure there’s a joke somewhere, or that someone’s going to pull the rug from under you. So you hang on to doubt instead. You let fear paralyze you into inaction. You refuse to rejoice, lest someone find out that you’ve been given more than you deserve, that you’ve been dealt a good hand.

But what if you really did believe that God wants to answer your prayers? What if you really did believe that God will give you more than you deserve? What if you allowed joy to get a hold of your heart as you learned to live by faith that God is all He says He is . . . and more?

The irony is that He’s already given us more than we will ever deserve through His Son Jesus Christ. He’s already dealt us the best hand through Salvation. Perhaps today you simply need a reminder of His goodness. Perhaps today you simply need to keep on praying. The answer you’re waiting for may just be on the way.