A Prayer for Hearing

Lord, I want to make time for You. Allow me the privilege of spending time in conversation with You. It's been increasingly difficult for me to find enough time to just sit and listen, to sit and pray, and our relationship has become hurried as a result. I do not want a rushed time, a distracted time. I just want to read Your word, ask You questions, hear Your guidance.

Even now as I make this attempt, the dog rolls around the room and threatens to go nuts. I know its my fault that he has been trapped in his room all weekend, but You know, I wish he could just deal with it right now so that we could talk. What we really need to talk about is Exodus. With Joel getting ready to take a sabbatical break, I am desperately asking for Your leading of the community. With the change in schedule looming, I am desperately calling for wisdom and help. We have built the church so far on the idea of struggle and suffering in service, and done very little of it. It is a scary proposition, to actually suffer on the behalf of others, to actually not do what we want to do with our Sundays and our weekends but to instead place our time in someone else's hands.

What it comes down to is that I've been comfortable with what we are doing, but what we are doing isn't necessarily fulfilling in the sense of what we started out to do. Not to mention that comfort was the opposite of our original goals. I love the people that have come along side each other as disciples in Exodus Community. I want to be faithful to the task of training and equipping them so that we all find that we are changing to be more like You. And I want to make sure to acknowledge that I don't make that change, a program change doesn't cause that transformation, but instead it is Your Spirit that transforms hearts and minds.

So this morning, my prayer is that You will be among us. As we move through a season of remembrance, and then seek You through Advent, come to us. As we begin to see changes in structure, be in them. In all of this, we seek Your face. Amen.