I asked one of the Shalom fellas to pray for me after church one Saturday night and he asked what it was that I wanted prayer for. I told him, and he nodded once, long and slow and quietly said “ok but I should tell you, I’m going to pray as the Holy Spirit shows me because what we think we need is often not what He wants to give.” – and then he began to pray.
In the last year I’ve often thought on this prayer, my request and his response and am again and again struck with the beauty, courage, fearsomeness and still-at-work outcomes and revelation that has come from that night and its magnifying glass effect. God has done a massive clear out in my heart. He’s chucked a lot of clutter, shown me the quality pieces I already own and shifted all my furniture.
Sometimes I stub a toe as I’m still getting used to the new layout but I’m not remotely tempted at all to put it back how it was.
It’s been an epic year where the good, the hard, the bad and the ugly has all been worked to show me new things. We had some intently happy times and some intently difficult ones. It has been a most stark year of contrasts and of refinement and of care and of waking up to grace.
May the depths of grace, peace, joy and courage be at work in us all as the adventures of 2020 come at us.
It has been a most stark year of contrasts
and of refinement
and of care
and of *waking up to grace.
* More about ‘waking up to grace’ coming soon 🙂
