Providing Christian resources from the YMCA past and present to nourish inclusive, equitable work in our diverse and global neighborhoods that build up healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
The YMCA was born in shadows and darkness, amidst bleak human misery, fueled by the courageous Christian faith of George Williams and his friends to pray for his fellow factory workers by name, all drowning in the ash-drenched despair of 1840’s sooty industrial London.
Today in my part of the world it is grey, bleak, chilly and sopping wet; perfect for lamenting on this Ash Wednesday.
Christians around the world today in their church or YMCA are choosing to pray, confess and repent of their iniquities, forgive those who sin against them, and maybe have the sign of the cross smudged on their forehead.
It’s a day of sorrow, of humility, of vulnerability and raw honesty.
We get to choose what we do with this day, we get to choose what to do with everyday, but it does seem to me that most people struggle with what to do with the sorrow that is everywhere, the grief and sadness that smudges each day.
Of all days, this is one to be melancholy, to be pensive, maybe even just plain depressed.
Everywhere I look is sorrow: sorrow in Ukraine, sorrow in Palestine, sorrow in Turkey, sorrow in the USA, sorrow in our cities, sorrow in our schools, sorrows in our YMCA, sorrow in our families, sorrows in our souls; there’s sorrow everywhere.
East Jerusalem, view from the Mount of Olives cemetery
What are our choices? Numb ourselves to the pain of it? Ignore it? Avoid it? Be consumed by it? Rage against it? Succumb to it? To pay too close attention to reality is to be in perpetual lament.
These are choices Jesus faced, whom we affectionately and in solidarity also name as The Man of Sorrows; he didn’t shy away, nor turn his back, but faced the pain, embraced it, even absorbed it, taking upon himself the pain-wrecking sins of the world.
This is why Paul Tillich writes about the virtue of courage precisely in the glaring face of death, of anxiety and grief, of seeming bleakness and meaninglessness; for Christians in our darkest hours we can see, if nothing else, the courage of Christ to trust God in the face of evil, injustice, and unrelenting sorrows.
The YMCA was born in darkness, amidst bleak human misery, fueled by the courageous Christian faith of George Williams and his friends to pray for his fellow factory workers by name, all drowning in the grueling despair of 1840’s industrial London.
Whatever the future of the YMCA and our churches, it must include our courageous presence in the lives of men and women who suffer the industrial injustices of reality, whose souls are broken down by machines and efficient technology, whose hearts are darkened by grating grief and stewing resentments.
What if you could have a day where you could just come clean before God?
Just lay it all out there, everything in your spirit, mind and body that is marred by shame and guilt, to let it go – as Christians we would say: to accept God’s forgiveness of our sins and in Christ Jesus be filled with His Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.
On Ash Wednesday, and on any day in the YMCA, we can choose to truly lament as well as muster up the courage to be present in sorrow everywhere – by the Spirit of the One who overcomes evil with good, who overcomes death through resurrection, who will one day wipe away every tear.
“And the God of all grace, who has called you to a resilient and glorious joy in Christ, after you have suffered (it won’t last forever), will personally restore you and make you strong, firmly able to withstand the storms.”
The Morning Watch is Mott’s dynamic publication that reveals the practices of abiding in Christ at the start of every day, a personal discipline which transformed his life, fueled a fruitful ministry, and inspired thousands upon thousands of young global Christian leaders to answer the call of God to rise up and serve in the power of the Holy Spirit.
You are invited to read and take to heart the compelling implications of keeping The Morning Watch – a simple set of habits – a subversive set of habits – a sustainable set of habits for building a healthy spirit that makes available through you the transformational energy of God.
“The true object should be – and it is necessary to remind ourselves of this constantly – to meet God, to hear His voice, to receive guidance and strength from Him which will enable me to please Him today in thought, in word, in activity.”
What do you think you are doing when you pray? Who are you becoming when you pray? What happens when we pray? Does it matter?
John R. Mottis one of the most influential Christian leaders in the 20th century; yet now largely forgotten – by the YMCA and the Church.
John R. Mott
Prayer and attending to the presence of Christ Jesus were central to Mott’s powerful accomplishments for the Kingdom of God with the YMCA.
It’s my hope that many of us will look up again to this respected visionary as a model for high-integrity, high-influence spiritual leadership.
Enjoy this extended and practical invitation to pray by Mott, written to young Christian leaders to be alert, ready, able to do God’s will by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we might join in the unceasing work of Christ Jesus. Especially in and through the YMCA. Not just in the 1890s, but in these days too.
The high-capacity legendary accomplishments of Mott are attributed by him to the keeping of The Morning Watch.
First edition printed 1893 by The International Committee Young Men’s Christian Association
“The Morning Watch”
There is no more encouraging fact in the life of the Church at the present time than the increase in the number of Christians who observe the morning watch. This tendency is most marked among students in all parts of the world.
By the observance of the morning watch is commonly meant the spending of at least the first half hour of every day alone with God in personal devotional Bible study and prayer.
What are the advantages of keeping the morning watch?
Without dwelling at all upon the general helpful results which come form the devotional study of the Bible and from communion with God, it should be emphasized that at the very beginning of the day the soul is in its most receptive state.
The mind has been refreshed by the rest of the night, and is also much less occupied than it will be at any subsequent hour of the day. Moreover, the outer conditions in the early morning are most favorable.
The first hour is preeminently the still hour, the noises of yesterday have receded, and the din of the world of today has not yet broken in upon us.
It is easier to say, “My soul be thou silent unto God.” It is easier to heed the command, “Be still and know that I am God.”
Furthermore, by having secret prayer and Bible study for spiritual growth the very first thing, we make certain of them.
By assigning these important exercise to a later hour in the day, we multiply the chances of the being abridged, interrupted or crowded out entirely.
In this connection we should heeds the words of McCheyne: “I ought to spend the best hours of every day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment, and is no, therefore, to be thrust into any corner.”
The morning watch prepares us for the days conflict with the forces of evil with in us and around us.
We do not wait until the enemy is upon us before we gird on the armor and grasp the sword.
We fortify ourselves before any avenue is opened through which Satan might assail us; for example before reading the morning paper, before entering into conversation with others, before turning our own thought currents upon the plans and work of the day. It is always wise to gain a march upon the enemy.
The keeping of the morning watch is the credit of largest and most enduring achievement in life and in service.
Without doubt our failure to prevail with man and against evil in the world during the day is too often due to our more fundamental failure to prevail with God at the beginning of the day.
When Miss Havergal was asked to explain why the Church does not accomplish more, she attributed it to the fact the Christians are not spending the first hour of the day alone with God.
Let us never forget the vital truth expressed by Faber that “the supernatural value of our actions depends upon the degree of our union with God at the time we do them.”
Therefore, if our lives and words and acts throughout the busy day are to possess supernatural value, we must take the earliest opportunity in the day to establish a vital and complete union with God.
Why delay the forming of this union a single hour?
Why be satisfied with having man alone work a part of the day if the energy of God may be manifested all the hours of the day?
Notwithstanding the great importance of the morning watch, there are Christians who say that they do not have the time to devote a full half hour or more of every day to such a spiritual exercise.
It is a striking fact that the busiest Christians, both among laymen and among those who are devoting their lives to direct Christian work, constitute the class who pleads this excuse the least and who most generally observe the morning watch.
It may be questioned seriously whether there is any Christian who will not, after honestly and persistently following this plan for a month or two, become convinced that it is the best possible use of the time, and that it does not interfere with his regular work.
He will find the time that the morning watch promotes the wisest economy of his time.
It makes him more conscientious in the use of time. He learns to redeem it. It helps him to see things in true perspective.
He enters the day well poised, under the control of the Spirit, not distracted; and thus he works without friction, strain, uncertainty and waste.
This suggests an adequate and satisfying reason for the oft-mentioned custom of Luther, who, if he had a peculiarly busy or trying day before him, would double or treble the amount of time which he ordinarily spent in prayer.
To promote the most profitable observance of the morning watch, certain points should be borne in mind and incorporated into practice.
First of all, form an inflexible resolution to keep the morning watch.
It will prove most dangerous and disastrous to permit any exceptions. Special caution and foresight should be exercised, therefore, to guard against such possible exceptions.
Nothing but the unmistakable will of God should be permitted to prevent us form the beginning the day with conscious and unhurried communion with God.
Be sure to be thoroughly awake before entering upon the observance of the morning watch. If necessary, first take a brisk walk in the open air. Let us present unto God for this all-important exercise not only the body, but also the mind, as a living sacrifice.
Have some general plan to follow in this devotional hour.
Many persons begin with a few moments of prayer, follow this with a season of Bible study, then spend some time in meditation, and close with special prayer.
It is possible, however to be over methodical. Beware of formalism at such a time above all times. It is also wise not to attempt to crowd too much into this hour.
Make sure at the very outset of the devotional hour each morning that you are right with God.
If there be any unconfessed sin, wrong motive, or spirit contrary to Christ, it must be made right before we can receive what God has in store for us for the day.
Sin is a terrible thing. It completely insulates us from God. It is vain, then, to expect real spiritual help from Bible study and prayer unless we are willing to give up any known sin.
Happy is the man who closes each day in fellowship with God, and who is able to say with David, “When I awake I am still with Thee.”
Recollect morning by morning the real object of the morning watch. What is it?
It is not simply to enable me to say that I have observed it. It is not to satisfy conscience by observing it because I had formed a resolution to do so. It is not to enable me to prepare Bible studies and spiritual meditations with which to help others.
The true object should be – and it is necessary to remind ourselves of this constantly – to meet God, to hear His voice, to receive guidance and strength from Him which will enable me to please Him today in thought, in word, in activity.
Select and arrange in advance the portions of the Scripture upon which to meditate at the time of the morning watch.
We should keep as much purely mechanical work as possible out of the devotional hour.
The portions selected should be taken from the more devotional and practical parts of the Bible.
They should be brief.
They should, so far as possible, be complete in themselves; and yet often it will be desirable to have portions which, though each is complete in itself, will be related to some common theme.
The follwing examples are meant to be suggestive:
the best thirty or sixty Psalms; thirty or more biographical portions; selected Epistles, especially some of the shorter ones; thirty of the exceeding great promises of the Bible; thirty portions bearing on each of such topics as prayer, faith, the Holy Spirit, temptation, our conversation; thirty commands of Christ; thirty or sixty portions of the Gospels bearing on the character of Christ as our example.
If a person will take a few hours on three or four Sabbaths during the year, he will be able to outline subject enough for use throughout the entire year.
He will then come to his Bible each morning with something definite. It will prevent drifting around and loss of time. It will also promote a more symmetrical spiritual development.
The pamphlet “Bible Study for Spiritual Growth” gives many suggestions as to the manner and spirit in which the Bible should be studied for the greatest devotional profit.
Give prayer a large place in the morning watch.
There needs to be prayer not only at the beginning and close of the hour, but the Bible study, meditation, and self-examination also should be conducted in the spirit of prayer.
As this aspect of the subject is treated so fully in teh pamphlet “The Secret Prayer Life” it is not enlarged upon here.
Only by filling the quiet hour with prayer can we keep out formalism and make the morning watch a great reality and force in our lives.
Remember that the hour of the morning watch is the still hour.
After praying and during Bible study it is well to pause and listen to what the Lord shall say.
Too often we fill up the devotional hour with our own thoughts and prayers and leave no still place for listening.
Our actual attitude might often be characterized better by the words, “Hear, Lord, for Thy servant speaketh,” than by the words, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.”
It is difficult to obey the command “Be still and know and know that I am God.” After we shut out the voices of the world’s turmoil, after we banish the suggestions of the tempter, after we cease to listen to the thoughts about the morrow, after we silence the sound of our own cares, questions, and prayers, then we hear that still, small voice which His true followers always know.
His voice is not like that of the fire, or strong wind, or earthquake, but is like unto “a sound of gentle stillness.”
Do we wonder that Paul exhorted us to study or to be ambitious to be quiet? He knew that it would require study and resolution to learn this great secret.
Who keeps the morning watch?
At once we think of some of the men of Bible times: Moses, who knew God face to face, and to whom in the early morning hours God revealed the Law: Isaiah, whom God wakened morning by morning to hear as a true disciple; Jeremiah, to whom God’s mercies and compassion’s were new every morning; and David, who declared, “In the morning will I order my prayer unto Thee, and will keep watch,” who reiterated, “I myself will awake right early” and “will give thanks,” and who learned from experience that “it is a good thing to show forth Thy loving kindness in the morning.”
The example of Jesus Christ is most impressive.
We are told that “in the morning, a great while before day, He arose up and went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”
Tradition teaches that the observance of the morning watch was widely prevalent among the early Christians. Rev. Web-Peploe has said that “All the great saints have been early risers”; and he might have added that they rose early primarily to begin the day with unhurried communion with God.
There come to mind such men as Rutherford, McCheyne and Andrew Bonar, Wesley and Whitefield, David Brainerd and Henry Martyn, George Mueller and Hudson Taylor. It is said of Joseph Alleine, that wonderful preacher of the seventeenth century, that he devoted the time between four and eight o’clock every morning to prayer and Bible study, and that if he heard a blacksmith at his work before he himself began his morning watch, he would exclaim, “How this noise shames me! Doth not my master deserve more than theirs?”
On our recent journey around the world we were deeply impressed by the large number of young men and women who entered into covenant to keep the morning watch.
All the men and women who have gone out from the universities of America and Britain to lead the Christian movements among the students of India faithfully observe this watch. In Ceylon we were impressed, not so much by the beautiful and luxuriant tropical vegetation, nor by the heathen shrines and temples, as by the sigh which greeted our eyes very early one morning of Tamil students walking under the palms with open Bibles in their hands, and their lips moving in silent prayer.
We visited one college in the Levant where, according to the last report, over two hundred boys and young men keep the morning watch. We know of no college in Christian lands of which this could be said. There are ten great student movements in the World’s Student Christian Federation, but that of China is the only one of them of which we could say last year that practically all of its active members began the day with Bible study and prayer. It was visiting a college, not in America or England, or Scandinavia, but in Japan, that we were wakened over an hour before daybreak, and taken through the city, across the valley, and to the crest of the famous Flowery Hill, to meet with the members of the Christian Association of that institution for special prayer, as was their custom.
The practical question for each one of us is, Why should not I keep the morning watch?
Next to receiving Christ as Saviour, and claiming the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we know of no act attended with larger good to ourselves or to others than the formation of an undiscourageable resolution to keep the morning watch.
Is there anything which an stand before the bar of my own reason or conscience that should be allowed to keep me from forming this life-expanding resolution?
Is there any excuse or reason acceptable to God which I can plead why I would not devote at least the first half hour of every day to secret prayer and devotional Bible study?
What would keep me from it? God? Certainly not.
Is it not far more likely self, with its love of ease and its shrinking from the formation of a difficult habit; or Satan, who, if he cannot keep us from studying the Bible and from prayer altogether, is anxious to have us place them as late in the day as possible, because the only things which have ever defeated him have been prayer and the Word of God?
Am I willing to pay what it costs to form this important habit? What will it cost?
Readjusting habits of sleep, which means earlier rising and, it may be, earlier retiring; economizing of time; more than one failure possibly, repeated and persistent efforts; increasing vigilance and real watching unto prayer.
Am I willing to pay the price in order to form this habit, which has so much to do with triumphant life and fruitful service?
If so, when shall I form the resolution?
And how shall a resolution be formed which shall stand?
“It is God that energizeth you, both to will and then to work for His good pleasure.”
For more about Mott, read this inspiring and informative biography by Hopkins
Whatever the future of Christianity in the YMCA can look like, I’m hoping it is one where we experience a religion sustained by the Same Spirit of Christ that makes equity and justice a reality.
For Christians in the YMCA, our principles are personal; not just that they mean a lot to us and we take them personally, but that they are Personal – that they are birthed out of a Real Person, out of the Way, Truth and Life of Christ Jesus.
Equity is a central Christian principle because it is central to the life and teachings of Christ.
When Jesus announced his “personal mission statement” to family and friends in his hometown synagogue of Nazareth, he declared a salvific message of justice and healing, of equity and liberation, of righteousness and goodness.
He wasn’t just stating the principles he would be putting into practice, Jesus was putting forth the way the Spirit of God was present in the world: with the poor against the rich who rob them, with the captives against their enslavers, with the blind against the gougers, with the oppressed against the elite who erode their freedoms.
“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.
He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.
He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.
Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.””
Jesus of Nazareth, Gospel according to Luke, 4.14-19 NIV
Christian theologian Michael Gorman remarks on the obvious:
These words became the substance and shape of Jesus’ ministry. More precisely, then, Jesus, filled with God’s Spirit, embodied biblical justice, especially in his concern for the weak and marginalized; the evangelists bear witness to this…. It was integral to his identity and mission. We might even say that Jesus not only proclaimed the good news to the poor…but he also became the gospel. And like the God of Israel’s Scriptures, Jesus expected those who walked with him to do likewise….”
Michael Gorman, Becoming The Gospel, 216-217
It was this atoning Same Spirit of God that was upon George Williams and his eleven Christian friends when they started the Young Men’s Christian Association in 1844 London England.
It was this Same cruciform Spirit of God that was upon Anthony Bowen when he courageously started a YMCA in the USA.
And it’s been the Same Spirit of Equity, Justice, Righteousness and Love which has animated the best of the YMCA since 1844; it’s also the Same Spirit that critiques and convicts us when we fall short of the glory of God and sin against one another.
Christians in the YMCA have an opportunity in every generation to powerfully experience the redemptive Power of God through their participation in the Gospel of Christ – and this mostly happens when we faith-fully participate in actions of justice and mercy, in sowing seeds of equity, in hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
The spirit of the YMCA must be renewed every generation.
The Same Spirit which was upon Jesus of Nazareth is the Same Spirit upon every follower of Jesus in the YMCA who is Born of the Spirit, upon everyone who bravely trusts in Christ, it’s for all who will humbly imitate him in love and equity by His Spirit.
When Christian’s in the YMCA get it wrong, when we perpetuate injustice and inequity, when we are guilty of unrighteousness, when we are convicted in our spirit by The Spirit of our sins against our neighbors, we know what we ought to do:
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our injustices, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our inequities and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”
The beloved apostle John, adapted from his first letter, 1.8-10 NIV
How serious is Jesus about those who follow him, who bear His Spirit, to speak truth in love to each other when we sin, when we are at fault for inequity, injustice, and unrighteousness?
“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you.
If they listen to you, you have won them over.
But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
If they still refuse to listen, tell it to your assembly of fellow followers; and if they refuse to listen even to them, treat them as you would an unrepentant and hard-hearted enemy.”
Christ Jesus in the Gospel according to Matthew, adapted, 18.15-17, NIV
The YMCA was started by Christians that we now revere, and it’s been built up and sustained almost eighteen decades by millions of Christians with the Same Spirit of Jesus upon them. Hallelujah! What a glorious reality for our communities and world!
But alas, all of those same Christians have never been without sin, each of us, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn says, experiences: “the battle line between good and evil runs through the heart of every man and woman.”
It shouldn’t be a shock when Christians in the YMCA commit injustices, rather it ought to produce sorrow and righteous anger, especially when it gets denied, goes unrepented, and unhealed; truth is crucial for reconciliation to flourish.
Whatever the future of Christianity in the YMCA can look like, I’m hoping it is one where we experience a humble religion sustained by the Same Spirit of Christ Jesus that makes equity and justice a reality.
Christians in the YMCA can strengthen the presence of Christ, they participate in the gospel of Jesus, they become the Good News of God when they “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our Lord.”
Wherever there is a cry to experience equity, wherever there is a protest against injustice, wherever unrighteousness darkens a soul, we ought to as followers of Jesus keep his Nazareth manifesto at the front of our minds, at the tip of our fingers, at the center of our spirit.
In the YMCA, may we who are brothers and sisters in the Lord, always strive to put Christ’s personal principles of equity and peace, of justice and love, of righteousness and mercy into practice everyday, that together by the Spirit of the Lord that is upon us, that has called us, we build up a healed spirit, a mind liberated by good news, a body released from oppression, that there would be flourishing for all.
![sorrow everywhere [ymca meditation on ash wednesday]](https://i0.wp.com/www.timhallman.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/jesus-prayer8.jpg?fit=325%2C327&ssl=1)
