“i’m excited about something”

posted by on Jan 31, 2013 from www.ivyschlicher.com

prayerworship

yep.  prayer & worship nights.

i’m excited about this for a couple [million] reasons.

1.  not that i don’t love to pray and worship the lord at home, at church, in my car, wherever, but for a long time i have been wanting a special place to go where i could pray, worship, read, write, etc.– a place where there is constant music, a place where there are other people gathered to do exactly the same thing, a place that is comfy and relaxed and sets a certain mood.  why?  i don’t know.  i’m cool drinking coffee at home, but sometimes it’s nice to go drink it in a coffee shop.  you know?

a few years ago i visited a place just like this and i absolutely loved it.  it was a 24/7 prayer room– and that’s it.  it was not a place to come and visit or to hear a sermon or anything like that (and don’t get me wrong– those things are very good!), but it was a place to just come and worship if you want or pray if you want or read your bible if you want or write in your journal if you want or do math if you want.  i don’t know.  but it was just such a neat environment where you could meet the lord and soak in music and prayers and all that good stuff.  i wanted so badly to have something like that near me.  never found one.  (although i am finding out now that there are a few places in charlotte that offer something like this that i should go check out.)  (and iowa people!  i know a place in des moines that offers something like this if you’re at all interested.)

2.  i get to help put this together!  help organize it.  bring ideas to the table.  help arrange and decorate it.  AGH!  this is super exciting for me as i love to do these things.

jesse has been meeting with one of the guys on the worship team to talk music and worship and all that kind of stuff, and they’ve been led and motivated and inspired to start up some kind of prayer room.  maybe not a 24/7 prayer room — yet — but just one night a week set aside for worship and prayer only.  it’s been on their hearts to see true worship on sunday mornings in church (and that’s another blog post), so they formed a core group to help get this worship night going, and it’s their hope that this kind of worship will flow over into the worship time on sunday mornings.

…and i love that!  so of course i jumped on board when i started to hear talk of this.  and i’m just excited.  ohhh, i’m just excited for A LOT of things!  again:

praising my god  |  feeling and being worshipful  |  being undistracted  |  being open to the lord  |  reading his word  |  singing praise songs  |  listening to others pray (<—- that does something to my heart.  i mean, it all does something to my heart, but i always find myself saying “LORD!  these people, they love you,” and it makes my heart feel like crying in a happy way.  i feel so thankful.)  |  decorating  |  setting the mood  |  being creative  |  …LOTS of things

to start out, the core group (six people dedicated to staying the entire three hours) decided to do a trial month before this prayer & worship night is announced at church.  by word of mouth we invited people to come, and the first week was a success.  (what’s a success?  was glory given to god?  yes.  do numbers matter?  nope.  but nine people were present.)  i was SO excited for this night, but sadly, i was hit with a headache the minute things popped off.  and it was one of those headaches you can’t ignore.  i couldn’t get past it.  i tried hard to focus, but it just wasn’t happening.  my mind was wandering thinking about things i should have done differently in decorating or what i wanted to do for the next go-round or how bad my headache sucked, and i just felt very “not present.”  and it was so sad to me.  i really felt hurt and disappointed.  but… on a brighter note, i got feedback from the core group the next day, and everyone was very happy and satisfied with the night, so that’s really cool.

the second week we continued with word of mouth and also put the prayer & worship ad in the church online newsletter.  again, another good night and new faces joined us.  and again, sadly, i had such a bad stomach pain that i woke up with that morning.  what the heck.  i felt i was able to be a little more present this time (nothing is worse than a headache– my opinion), but the pain was still very, very distracting, and i really just wanted to go home.  ):  so again, by the end of the night i was feeling very disappointed.  …not disappointed with the lord or with myself even, but just disappointed i couldn’t “enjoy” it like i wanted to.

…so we’ll see how next week goes.  i haven’t lost hope!  i’m still very excited about this.  i know the lord wants to meet me there, and i know he wants me involved in this.  i feel like i’m waiting for something (from the lord), but i have no idea what it is.  i don’t think it’s anything “major,” buuuut… i don’t know.  i don’t know what i think.  i think a lot of things.  (…and anything the lord does is major.)

so okay.  if you’re too far away to come out some tuesday night, PLEASE pray for the prayer & worship nights at eternal on tuesdays!  and if you’re close enough to come be a part of this some night, PLEASE come join us!  it’s from 7 to 10 on tuesday nights at the eternal office, but it’s TOTALLY open door.  you come whenever you want to, and you leave whenever you want to.  no one cares.  if you want to pray or read or sing aloud, DO IT!  if you want to be silent, DO IT!  if you only have 15 minutes, that’s long enough!  (:  (okay.  find more information here.)