More than anything, Willa Kane wants to pass on a legacy of intimate conversation with God to her grandchildren. Having been personally discipled by the late Michael Green in relational evangelism, she is a trusted Bible teacher and mentor to young women. She also serves as a trustee for the American Anglican Council, has supported Holy Trinity Anglican Church and New City Fellows as a founding member, and offers wisdom and insight as a board member for Anne Graham Lotz’s ministry. Her most recent spiritual labor of love has been “Eighth Day Prayers,” a three-book devotional set full of Scriptures, meditations and invitations to prayer that follow the liturgical year.

Today, she’s opening up about the conversations she loves to engage in at her favorite hometown restaurant in southeast Georgia and how she enjoys creating beauty in unexpected places (like the dining room table). Read on to learn how God birthed “Eighth Day Prayers” out of the darkness and loneliness of the pandemic and which resources have shaped Willa’s passion for prayer.

QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT

The meals we enjoy are about so much more than the food we eat. So how does a “go-to” meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind your web bio?

Although I grew up and still live in Raleigh, North Carolina, where my husband and I raised our children, we spend several months each year on the coast of Georgia. We have a favorite restaurant there called Delaney’s Bistro and Bar — a throwback, family-owned restaurant. It’s not chic, rustic or trendy like many culinary spots today. It’s a place with white tablecloths, good food and great service, where everybody feels like they belong.

It’s a favorite not necessarily for the delicious food that comes out of a kitchen manned by Tom, the chef and owner, but because every meal is a master class in the art of conversation.

Our favorite waiter, KK, greets us at the door with a hug before he ushers us to our table. No matter who is with us (we have four married children and 12 grandchildren), he engages with each one as if he’s been waiting for them. Shirley Temples appear for children, a glass of this or that for adults — he knows us and what we like.

Menus are ignored because KK recites from memory everything Tom prepares in the kitchen each night. It’s impossible to remember all the choices, so the conversation begins: “What did you say about the shrimp, the elk? What sauce is on the steak?” It’s a conversation among friends and family that continues through the evening. We ask questions to learn things about each other. We listen hard because the person matters to us. We share real things. Sometimes we commiserate. Lots of times, we laugh. These connections bring us joy.

The art of conversation is part of my Southern DNA, and I’m serious about passing it along to our grandchildren so they can talk to God. I want them to pull up a seat at the table he’s set for them, listen for his voice and engage in a conversation that lasts forever.

QUESTION #2: REVEAL

We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So what are yours? What so-called “nonspiritual” activity do you love engaging in that also helps you find essential spiritual renewal?

I like to set a pretty table. Collecting things I can put together in creative ways and finding new and unexpected scenarios that didn’t exist before is my jam.

For a recent Valentine’s Day dinner with grandchildren, I used pretty placemats and pink paper plates and scattered jelly bean hearts on the lazy Susan perched at the center of a table for 10. The mamas weren’t thrilled — jelly beans as appetizers don’t make for easy bedtimes! But they make memories, and that’s what I’m all about.

At Thanksgiving, I set the table for 23 in our immediate family. The youngest, just a year old, held court beside his 92-year-old great-grandmother, looking down a long table with a progression of potted savory herbs (think parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme), old vases stuffed with fragrant white roses, and twinkling candles in votives I’ve collected through the years. Scalloped placemats sit on a damask tablecloth, green cabbage leaf chargers support fine china in fall colors. These are all things I’ve collected but have never put together quite this way before.

My little practice of creating vignettes of unexpected beauty reminds me of our God, who constantly creates moments of beauty. No two sunsets are ever just the same, fresh green leaves clothing branches that were bare just days before, daffodils dancing with yellow delight after months of sleeping underground — these are the things he’s showing me as I look outside my windows.

As a precious friend of mine loves to say, “There’s never not more” in the hands of our God. He is always creating unexpected beauty in unexpected places.

QUESTION #3: CONFESS

Every superhero has a weakness; every human too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re all broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite, and how do you confront its power head-on?

I was a 28-year-old mother of one little boy with another on the way. After a fellowship to graduate school and the beginning of a promising career, I married the young man of my dreams and we settled in my hometown. We had a nice house in a nice neighborhood with nice friends. On the outside, my life looked almost perfect. But on the inside, something was missing.

One summer afternoon as our children played, a friend invited me to the Bible study she attended. I said, “You know, I believe in God. It’s the Jesus concept I don’t get.” She just smiled and said, “Why don’t you come and see?”

In my intellectual pride, I had relegated Jesus to a concept, not a person, and certainly not a savior. My resume and my life looked pretty good. Why would I need a savior?

The truth was, I thought everything about leading a good life was up to me, that with the proper application of my mind and diligent work, I could accomplish whatever goals I set. But as I reached each goal, I felt an urgency to move on to the next one. Even the good things of life offered no lasting satisfaction, and my heart was restless. Fifth-century theologian Augustine perfectly described my condition: “O Lord, you made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.”

My kryptonites were, and some days still are, perfectionism and pleasing.

I took my friend up on her offer to “come and see,” and five weeks into a study of the book of Matthew, God used this verse as a scalpel to my soul: at the moment Jesus yielded up his spirit, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matt. 27:51, ESV).

The veil was torn that had clouded my understanding of Jesus as a savior, not a concept. Everything about living a good life isn’t up to me. In fact, I’m not capable of it. I need a savior. I have a savior, and his name is Jesus. I’m no longer on the outside trying to earn my way in. Jesus has opened the way.

On days when my heart tells me, “You’re not good enough. Try harder, be better, make everybody happy,” I have to let the Holy Spirit remind me that Jesus led a perfect life, pleasing God the Father in ways I never could. And that’s how I can lay down the heavy weight of perfectionism and pleasing.

QUESTION #4: FIRE UP

Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your current obsession? And why should it be ours?

My current passion grew from a mustard seed, that is, an early morning text the week the world shut down from COVID. “What would you think of getting friends and family to pray for eight minutes at 8 p.m. each day?” With the help of two other friends, an invitation to pray went viral. Within three weeks, almost 15,000 people around the world joined in and a global prayer initiative was born.

As I look back over the past five years, I’m in awe of the way God works. He took a tiny idea — a mustard seed — and grew it into something we never imagined. I woke up one morning unsettled and uncertain about how to live in a pandemic shutdown. By the next day, the Lord of the universe was connecting me through his Word with people all around the globe. He called other writers into an unselfish collaboration to create prayers to draw others in. From one small text, he created a community in a darkening world where people felt isolated. Only God could have done it.

From this beginning, we’ve published “Eighth Day Prayers,” a three-book devotional series that follows the liturgical year. My heart’s desire is to provide a resource for people to hold in their hands — something good, beautiful and true. In a way, these books are filled with conversation starters meant to open up intimate communication with the God who spoke his words to us. It’s an exercise of soaking in Scripture as a way to enter into prayer, all the while remembering where we are in the larger story of redemption.

Where are we in that story? Yearning for Christ’s kingdom to break into a dark world during Advent and Lent? Celebrating God’s extraordinary gifts of grace at Christmas, Easter and Pentecost? Persevering during days that are challenging, monotonous or ordinary?

No matter the week or the season, there’s another name for the day we are living: the eighth day. Jesus Christ was resurrected the day after the last day of the week, the day when everything changed. My hope is that “Eighth Day Prayers” would encourage believers to live like eighth-day people in the resurrection power of Christ.

QUESTION #5: BOOST

Cashiers, CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?

From the beginning of crafting “Eighth Day Prayers,” the Holy Spirit drew me like a magnet. I’m reminded of those early disciples who left their fishing boats and dropped their nets immediately when Jesus said, “Come, follow me.” I had a deep knowing that I should immediately reach out to friends for help; a settled conviction that we should immediately share that first passage of Scripture, meditation and an invitation to prayer with our larger circles of friends; and a joyful excitement to keep doing the next things God put before us.

During those first three weeks, we watched in amazement as people in time zones all around the globe accepted the invitation to pray for eight minutes at 8 p.m. It was as if pinprick lights of the gospel were piercing the darkness engulfing our planet, literally wrapping the world in prayer. The Holy Spirit was truly amplifying our small offering, and this invigorated our hearts to persevere.

It felt like riding shotgun with the God of glory.

I’m a novice in the publishing world and have been surprised at the amount of work that goes into getting a book to market. And we released three books in six months! On days when I feel the weight of moving the project forward, the Holy Spirit always sends someone who is using our prayers to encourage me that this project is his. “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thess. 5:24, ESV) is a promise I often claim.

Recently, I opened “Eighth Day Prayers” on a day I was facing some serious challenges. To my surprise, the meditation for that day was one I had written several years ago. As I soaked in the Scripture, his living Word settled in my heart. And in a way only the Holy Spirit could apply, the meditation I had written was like an arrow to my heart. He is still a magnet drawing me in, and I am grateful.

QUESTION #6: inspire

Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied habits that open our hearts to the presence of God. So let us in. Which spiritual practice is working best for you in this season?

God meets me most profoundly at a table in the corner of our sunroom overlooking the Black Banks River in Southeast Georgia. In the quiet of an early morning waiting for sunrise, the world wakes up before my eyes. At first, everything is still. And then a lone egret descends from the sky to take his perch on a weathered cross erected on our dock during Holy Week when the world was dark in COVID. Easter was shuttered that year, and my heart was breaking, so my contractor friend Skip mitered weathered boards together, pounded nails where Jesus’ hands were pierced and attached it to a railing so I had a clear view of it whenever I looked toward the marsh.

On the table are my Bible, a journal, “Eighth Day Prayers,” “Daily Light” and a steaming cup of black coffee. But before I open a book, before I pick up a pen, I look out over God’s creation and say, “You are God, and there is no other. Your purposes will stand. You proclaim the end from the beginning.” I tell God what he has told me about himself.

And this leads me to my favorite spiritual practice: Lectio Divina. Lectio is an ancient practice of contemplative prayer. I read the passage for the day in “Eighth Day Prayers.” I soak in it, often reading it a second time, waiting for the Lord to bring a word, a phrase or a verse to my attention. Something he’s chosen just for me this day. And I listen for his voice to tell me more. How does it inspire, convict, correct, explain something in my life or in my heart? I journal as I pray, sometimes using different colors to express what I’m feeling or what I’m hearing from God.

Then I turn to a little book I’ve loved for years called “Daily Light,” a compilation of verses from Scripture for morning and evening each day. I pray using those verses, especially ones that intersect with whatever I’ve heard in my time in Eighth Day Prayers. I listen for God to speak. And I ask him to guide me through the day.

I close my time gazing back across the marsh. Sometimes the egret is still on his post and sometimes he’s flown away. But the cross is still there, and he’ll be back. And so will I.

QUESTION #7: FOCUS

Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out to you? What changed reality and your heart?

This question is tough because I’m a voracious reader and an unrestrained collector of books, especially pertaining to faith and theology.

As I look back, I’d have to say two little books about prayer have impacted me most deeply. Without this question forcing me to take stock, I don’t know that I would have seen it. Prayer has been the thread the Lord has woven throughout my journey. I would have thought my life following Christ would be more about understanding theological concepts and honing skills as a teacher and speaker, gathering people using gifts of hospitality so they can meet the risen Christ, and using leadership skills to help build kingdom-focused organizations. But really, it starts and ends with prayer, so prayer is at the heart of my most life-changing resources, which I’ll share below.

The first is “The Practice of the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century French monk who lived a life of constant prayer as he performed humble tasks. It’s full of wonderful thoughts like this: “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed. And it is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelet in the pan for the love of God.” God used this book in my life while I was at home raising four small children. Even folding tiny T-shirts and mismatched socks can become worship using his approach.

Second, “The Valley of Vision” by Arthur Bennett is a compilation of Puritan prayers. I discovered this powerful little volume through our son, who in his early 20s was diagnosed with a serious motor neurological disease. As he grappled with his new reality, he read this: “Christ does not desire me, now justified, to live in self-confidence in my own strength but gives me the law of the Spirit of Life to obey thee.” This book is a feast of beautiful language and reverence that always leads me deeper in prayer.

“Eighth Day Prayers,” Volumes I, II and III have also changed me as I’ve been involved in helping write and steward this project over the last five years. I’ve learned to soak in Scripture, listen for a word or a phrase intended just for me and then offer back to the One who started the conversation the things he wants me to know about himself and the things he’s reading in my heart. I’ve been pulled into the world of God’s Word and have found new landscapes of breathtaking beauty as I rest in his presence and sense new life in the Holy Spirit within me.

We all have things we cling to to survive or even thrive in our fast-paced, techno-driven world. How have you been successful in harnessing technology to aid in your spiritual growth?

My inability to engage usefully and proficiently with technology is one of the greatest frustrations in my life. I’m 69, which makes me a dinosaur in tech time. I remember when my brother, a Silicon Valley mover and shaker, suggested in 1992 that we connect our young sons by email. I responded, “What is email?” That probably tells you everything you need to know. Except that I hate feeling incompetent, and when I fail at purportedly simple things in this space, it makes me angry. Which I also don’t like.

Connecting with prayer warriors around the world during the COVID years and continuing to share “Eighth Day Prayers” with a large online community has been thrilling and feels important, but it would never have happened if I were involved in anything but imagining its benefit. Making it happen is clearly not in my skill set. I know my boundaries.

I do love access to good preachers (Sinclair Ferguson), inspiring music (Cece Winans’ “Goodness of God”) and great commentaries (John Stott) at the touch of my computer. But to be completely honest, I must say that I prefer the feel of my Bible in my lap, turning pages to find notes I made decades ago.

And I have to admit that I wonder if technology, and now AI, which promises so much connectivity in a world that feels fractured, might be a modern-day Tower of Babel. If we use these amazing tools to convince ourselves that we don’t need God, I guess that is true.

Maybe my limitations aren’t so bad after all.

QUESTION #8: dream

God’s continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?

During the last five years as we’ve created “Eighth Day Prayers,” I feel almost as if I’ve wandered through a wardrobe into a land like Narnia. As I’ve written, it was a mustard seed beginning — we had no idea that writing the first meditation and sharing it online would lead to a trilogy of liturgical devotionals. This was never the goal. But I do hope these books draw many believers to savor their time in prayer, using God’s words to open avenues of deep love and understanding.

So it’s hard to imagine what might be next. What I do know is that God never wastes his resources. And if you’re willing to be used, he’ll usually find a way to use you.

I’ve wondered if the format we’ve developed with Scripture-soaked prayer, a guided meditation and invitation to prayer might work for more specific audiences. “Eighth Day Prayers” for graduates, for teens, for children, for someone in grief?

And as an artist, I’ve wondered if my delight in “soaking in Scripture” against the backdrop of the life of Christ, in the rhythm of the liturgical year, might lead to a season of painting.

As a grandmother of 12, I know this more than anything: I want to use what I’ve learned about having deep conversations with God using his words in the Bible to know him more intimately and know that I am his beloved to inspire my grandchildren toward their own relationships with Christ so that they might glorify God and enjoy him forever.

If you compare architecture nowadays to that of 200 years ago, you’ll see a stark difference. Ornamented accents replaced with rigid lines. Intricate ironwork and gilded details giving way to sleek minimalism.

In a culture that worships functionality, I sometimes wonder if our society is losing its ability to appreciate beauty for beauty’s sake — or rather, for God’s sake. As the Author of beauty, God delights in creating spectacular sunsets, sweet-smelling flowers in their robes of color and majestic mountain peaks infused with scented pine.

Can we find pockets of our lives to do the same? To create an intricate dish. To, like Willa, set the table with finery and decorations. To paint a landscape to hang on the wall. To write a poem or a song expressing our love for God. What beauty will you create this week?

Willa Kane