"prayer @ 8 tonight, our house"
... this was the text I received Saturday evening at about 7:30 p.m. Chad and Eric were cashing in a Buffalo Wild Wings gift card with some other guys and watching the Bengals lose to the Texans in the Wild Card playoff game. Emme was at girl's Bible study and I was rolling Ellen's hair around strips of Chad's old t-shirt. She wanted curls for church.
Group prayer wasn't on the radar. It just became the sudden blip that beeped with increased intensity. Chad and Eric came home... Chad and I left to pray... Ellen went to bed... Eric watched football.
We prayed with intensity. We prayed for a breath of fresh Spirit {actually... He doesn't need to be fresh, we do. A better prayer would have been freshen us to see You and to be quick to listen and quick to obey}. We prayed for Him to come.. to meet us... to change us... to shake us up a bit. We talked and shared ideas. Really, though, we left with no answers but a peace to sleep through the night.
Those that meet with us to fellowship on Sunday mornings walked in to church yesterday and saw chairs no longer in rows facing the podium. Instead, three concentric circles, with aisles to get in and out, sat around a stool. I walked in and smiled. I sat and prayed. Chad joined me and we prayed together. I waited... in peace {no small feat of the Spirit!}.
A beautiful service of testimony and prayer. Of a cappella hymns sprinkled with spontaneous Scripture reading. A service for Him, about Him and ultimately from Him. All from a slightly different vantage point. Sitting in a different way, doing things in a different order shook up church a bit and gave me a fresh perspective.
I thought that was it... a little shaking up at church and I would move on to the rest of my day... maybe nap... possibly write... probably watch some football. Again, the radar had no indication of what was to come.
As only He can do, He took that prayer that I prayed and applied it to my whole day. Much like turning over a snowglobe and watching the glitter swirl and sparkle. He turned my day. A day of sweet fellowship and renewed friendships. A day of no less that eleven children running amuck throughout my house. An evening of unhurried face time with my man... a few moments to reconnect before the events that will make up this week.
Most of the time, I am afraid to ask God to shake things up. I think in negative tones. I am afraid that His shaking means my world trembles, my mountains quake and my rivers will run over.
I quickly forget that my God desires to bless my socks off and yesterday He did that by shaking things up a bit.
