I'm going to try and catch people up with all that's been going over here in Belfast for me in a multi-part blog week. Lots has happened in the past few weeks. We had the 24 hour prayer at Woodvale (mentioned in the last post), I got a nasty bit of the flu, Urban Magnets is going with some sense of regularity, the Christmas market at City Hall opened, we had Thanksgiving at the Baker's house, we played American football before said Thanksgiving, Ellison ate my Secret Santa name so no one would ever find out who I had, Kendra and I went to see Hugo (first movie in about 4 months!), we had the Christmas Ball at Woodvale, we went and saw the Belfast Jazz Orchestra, and I've eaten more snowballs than I can count. But for this post, Part 1, we'll just focus on the 24 hour prayer.
About three and a half weeks ago a group of about ten of us courageously took the night shift for our 24 hours of prayer and stayed at the church overnight. We didn't just pray. We had some fellowship. We even snuck in a bit of sleep. So, to be fair, it was probably more like 20 hours of prayer.
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| my "pod" dealing with our service in the world for others |
The church opened at 11 on Saturday for people to begin coming in. We set up various "pods" in the fellowship room at the front of the church and in the sanctuary for people to work their way around, praying at each place. The pods had different themes, giving people different things to pray about and different ways in which to pray: leaving written requests, meditating on specific trials that we have, or praying for others were a few of these ways.
The mood in the church was incredible. It was calming and peaceful. As darkness fell, the candlelight rose. For some reason candles seem to go well with prayer and this night was no exception. They added to the feeling that the Spirit was at work. At work providing a peaceful place in which we could be heard by each other and the Lord and allowing the space to be one in which it was easy to truly speak and listen.
After time in solo prayer, the group came together to pray for the church and the many requests that were written and left. It was about 2 in the morning at this point and some of us were really fighting to keep our eyes open (that wasn't me yet). But we persevered and spent some great time both praying and then reflecting on the prayers together. One prayer that was left and really stood out to me was "Lord, help me to serve all people, not just those I am comfortable serving." I really started thinking about this a lot over that next week. I think if I was to write out a request like this, I would add "Lord, please help me to serve when it is inconvenient as well." It's great when we serve, but we often do it because the opportunity to just about slaps us in the face and we almost don't have a choice not to serve. Or that the opportunity to serve comes at the right time and this time spent serving isn't going to burden us in some other way later. I, myself, am guilty of this. I even try to justify not serving in my mind when it's so obvious that I just missed the opportunity to. For example, two weeks ago I was headed up the Antrim Road, going back to our flat from the 174 Trust, when I noticed one of the restaurants along the way closing. This restaurant usually has tables and chairs set up just outside the door underneath the black awnings. As they were closing up, one of the workers was carrying in the tables and chairs. She appeared to be the last person left for the day, and the chairs and tables were difficult for her to carry. I could have helped her finish in no time but I walked right on past. A half a block later I knew I blew it, but I kept walking and tried to justify not helping her out. I failed at justifying this and am still wrestling with it weeks later. "Lord, help me serve when it's uncomfortable and inconvenient."
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| another one of my favorite prayers that was left - "help us to be real" |
So thank you Woodvale for getting me involved in the 24 hour prayer. It's helped me remember the importance of prayer. Even if you're unsure of whether your prayers are being heard or not, it's important to work things through in your mind in the way that prayer allows us to. And maybe for you, like it does for me, it'll help you be more attentive throughout your day to all of the ways this world keeps ticking and how we're all a part of keeping the motion positive.
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| i did get some sleep. also had my camera stolen and found pictures like this one put on it. |
I'm going to try and catch people up with all that's been going over here in Belfast for me in a multi-part blog week. Lots has happened in the past few weeks. We had the 24 hour prayer at Woodvale (mentioned in the last post), I got a nasty bit of the flu, Urban Magnets is going with some sense of regularity, the Christmas market at City Hall opened, we had Thanksgiving at the Baker's house, we played American football before said Thanksgiving, Ellison ate my Secret Santa name so no one would ever find out who I had, Kendra and I went to see Hugo (first movie in about 4 months!), we had the Christmas Ball at Woodvale, we went and saw the Belfast Jazz Orchestra, and I've eaten more snowballs than I can count. But for this post, Part 1, we'll just focus on the 24 hour prayer.
After time in solo prayer, the group came together to pray for the church and the many requests that were written and left. It was about 2 in the morning at this point and some of us were really fighting to keep our eyes open (that wasn't me yet). But we persevered and spent some great time both praying and then reflecting on the prayers together. One prayer that was left and really stood out to me was "Lord, help me to serve all people, not just those I am comfortable serving." I really started thinking about this a lot over that next week. I think if I was to write out a request like this, I would add "Lord, please help me to serve when it is inconvenient as well." It's great when we serve, but we often do it because the opportunity to just about slaps us in the face and we almost don't have a choice not to serve. Or that the opportunity to serve comes at the right time and this time spent serving isn't going to burden us in some other way later. I, myself, am guilty of this. I even try to justify not serving in my mind when it's so obvious that I just missed the opportunity to. For example, two weeks ago I was headed up the Antrim Road, going back to our flat from the 174 Trust, when I noticed one of the restaurants along the way closing. This restaurant usually has tables and chairs set up just outside the door underneath the black awnings. As they were closing up, one of the workers was carrying in the tables and chairs. She appeared to be the last person left for the day, and the chairs and tables were difficult for her to carry. I could have helped her finish in no time but I walked right on past. A half a block later I knew I blew it, but I kept walking and tried to justify not helping her out. I failed at justifying this and am still wrestling with it weeks later. "Lord, help me serve when it's uncomfortable and inconvenient."
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