Dr. Duewel - a man after my own heart...

You might think this is a post justifying my nocturnal body clock, but it's really a post on prayer as I conclude my entries on Dr. Wesley Duewel.

Dr. Duewel has not only written numerous books on prayer, but models the life of an intercessor. This legacy of prayer was influenced by his mother who I mentioned before carried prayer burdens evident to a young Wesley by her tears during their family prayer times.

I wondered what personal prayer habits he practiced over the years of his life. If anybody knows me well, you would be aware of the fact that I have been known to take oral surveys asking people what time of day they prayed... morning or night. It seems any book I would read on prayer emphasized the early morning hours of prayer. Great intercessors were the ones who got up before dawn bending their knees in prayer. I always felt torn with these thoughts. I believed in the power of prayer, but this morning thing I could not do.

I've not been a morning person since I can remember... ask my mom, my kids or my husband. They know. I've tried getting up in the morning hours to pray, but decided God wouldn't even want to meet with me at 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. My body and mind are just not awake at those hours, no matter how hard I try. My husband, on the other hand, could probably say along with Thomas Jefferson, The sun has not caught me in bed in fifty years. We decided that we could count on one hand how many times I've been up before Dennis. Some might call me undisciplined or uncommited or even unspiritual, but I very seldom do mornings.

In answer to my question, Dr. Duewel pulls a little notebook out of his shirt pocket. It wasn't a little spiral notebook that you might imagine. The best thing I can find similar to what he had is the smallest possible "Moleskine" notebook (legendary notebook of artists and writers). Some are ruled, some are blank. If you can get past the price (2 x-small for 5.95), they're fun little notebooks.

He flipped through the pages where I could see name after name of people he lifted in prayer. No particular requests, only names. He said he knows what he needs to pray for each one. He began this practice while in college where he ended up with a thousand names of missionaries on his daily prayer list by the time he graduated. He carries this little notebook with him throughout the day and whenever he can "snatch some moments" for prayer, he prays. Might be while he's waiting for an appt. or for a red light to turn green, whatever, he uses the spare minutes in his day to pray. Then in the evening he finds time to finish whatever names he didn't cover throughout his day. This might take anywhere from one to two hours. That was it. I was waiting for the morning hours routine to come through at some point. Surely this man of prayer included morning in his practices.

Wanting some clarity on this, yet with some hesitancy I asked, Sooo.... you don't pray in the morning?

You can just imagine how surprised and thrilled I was when Dr. Duewel didn't even utter a word, but simply shook his head back and forth giving me a "no" answer (I think he actually had a little smile on his face, almost like he knew about my survey). I didn't even know how to respond. I thought he might elaborate, but he didn't. I'm sure I looked a bit stunned. This man who has written books on prayer and prays diligently and consistently did not pray in the morning hours! I wanted to stand up and say Yes! or give him the thumbs up, but all I could say was, Okay! with a silly little smile on my face now.

So, Dr. Duewel has become my hero of prayer warriors. He doesn't do mornings either.

As much as I appreciated his routine of snatching moments in prayer with his little notebook in hand, more than anything it proved to me that it doesn't matter when we pray, but that we pray.

Thank you Dr. Duewel for your time and your legacy of prayer!