Last Night

Last night was a study in interesting moments.

Within minutes of the service starting, the first worship song or two, the friend sitting on my right broke down and began to weep. I'd known from the five word conversation we'd exchanged that things weren't going that well, but this was unexpected. So, for the entire service, I held her. I wrapped my arms around her, did my best to continue focusing on the service while also monitoring her needs, and whether God was speaking to me for her.

As the service drew to a close, first a few, and then a number of our friends gathered around her and began to pray. To be honest, other than a long-needed release of emotions, I'm not sure that much was accomplished. I don't feel that we were that successful in battling the things going on in the spiritual in her life - and they are many. I suspect that this will be a long and on-going battle. If you have a moment, pray for my friend. Her spirit is broken right now and she is wrestling heavily with life and with God. The greatest failures seem to come on the heels of the greatest victories, and it is hard in those moments to remember the victories and rest in them, rather than condemning yourself for the failures.

After the service, I headed out to Earls with another good friend. I could tell there was stuff going on in her life, I wasn't ready to go home yet, so I invited her to go for "coffee" which we turned into dinner for me and dessert for her. God is doing some cool things in her life, but it had been a really rough week, and she was exhausted. Plus, the new things God is doing are scaring her - because she's beginning to hear His voice, and that's weird when you come from a conservative baptist church! I was so grateful for the chance to sit with her, to hear what's genuinely going on in her life, to speak encouragement from my own experiences as I too have begun to hear God's voice, and then to walk back to my car, encourage her to climb in, and spend time praying with and for her.

It was a strange night - a series of snapshots that seem disconnected somehow. Two friends announcing that they've begun dating, dinner with my friend, holding a weeping young woman through an entire worship service, and then praying for her for at least an hour afterwards. But I think it might have been good. I came home exhausted emotionally, and have a busy day planned for today, and again for tomorrow, but I think it was good.