Prayer: The Game with Minutes

Frank C. Laubach (1884–1970)

Frank C. Laubach Letters by a Modern Mystic book

“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17 · the verse on which Laubach builds the Game with Minutes

Rules

The goal isn't performance but attention: in every hour, for as many minutes as possible — even if only for a second or two — to remember God. If you can't manage every minute, you play at least at every change of activity.

Whispered sentences

“Lord, here I am.” · “Are you seeing this with me?” · “What now?” A short sentence in your mind is enough; nobody around will notice a thing. The exact opposite of rattling off prayers without attention.

Evening score

How many minutes of the hour belonged to God? Losing isn't held against you — it's a game, not an exam. Tomorrow you play again.

booklet The Game with Minutes
the experiment began in 1930 on Mindanao
letters: Letters by a Modern Mystic

Interactive

“Every day the feeling grows in me that one invisible hand is holding and guiding me, while another invisible hand is stretched out ahead, preparing the way.”

“This sense of cooperating with God in little things amazes me so much, because I have never felt it like this before. I need something, I turn around and find it already waiting for me.”

Frank C. Laubach, Letters by a Modern Mystic

When to play

In his booklet Laubach goes through the ordinary situations of the day — the game has no “out of bounds”. The twelve moments on the clock face are one ordinary day, from waking up to falling asleep.

Waking up — the first thought of the day: “Lord, here I am.” Before even getting up.

Walking — the rhythm of your steps as a quiet conversation; sensing God walking beside you.

Conversation — looking at the other person and silently asking that God would speak through me.

At the table — gratitude not only at the start: God as the invisible guest at the meal.

Work and study — not doing it “for God” but “with God”: quiet collaboration on the task.

Reading — reading “as a pair”: after each paragraph asking what God is saying to me through it.

Thinking and planning — thinking out loud towards God; planning turns into prayer.

In a crowd — flash prayers for the people around: for the backs in front of you, for the faces on the bus.

Play and rest — playing and resting with gratitude; free time counts too.

Church service — praying during the sermon for the preacher and for the people in the pews.

Hard times — holding pain and worries before God: “Are you seeing this with me?”

Falling asleep — falling asleep mid-conversation; the evening score without guilt, tomorrow a new game.

“I am playing my part in a plan far bigger than myself. … Of course I must work, but God works along with me. Being aware of this gives me a sense of security and assurance about the future, which is also new to me.”

Frank C. Laubach (Letters by a Modern Mystic)

“It seems that I now need to worry about only one thing, and everything else ‘takes care of itself’ — or rather I will say, and this is truer: God takes care of everything else. My task is to live this hour in continuous inner conversation with God and in perfect responsiveness to his will. To fill this hour with the glory of God.”

Frank C. Laubach (Letters by a Modern Mystic)

Who was Frank Laubach (1884–1970)

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Galatians 2:20 · according to Laubach “the most wonderful discovery of all” (The Game with Minutes)

60 000 000

people learned to read and write thanks to his “Each One Teach One” method — literacy kept spreading on its own

1930

Mindanao, Philippines: among illiterate Muslims, his experiment in constant attention to God begins

1

a US postage stamp bears his face — an honour missionaries don't usually receive

A missionary in a remote part of the Philippines knew the imams had no reason to open their doors to him. So he decided to draw close to God and settle into the kingdom of God so thoroughly that his faith would be irresistible to the people around him — and in the end the imams themselves sent him those who wanted to know more about God. Amid all that hard and dangerous work he was a modern mystic: his texts are tiny, breathtaking, and capture brilliantly the reality of life in the kingdom of God. His main tool for drawing nearer to the kingdom of God was the Game with Minutes — he trained himself to fix his attention on God every single minute, and in his letters he reveals what that experiment brought about.

More about Laubach on the Resources & inspiration page.