Week 48: A Week (or more) of Silence

This past Sunday I went to the Vineyard Church of Boston. If you've been following my blog, you would know that I attended the Vineyard Church of Evanston when I was living near Chicago. God used Vineyard to do a lot of amazing things in my life, and I will always be grateful for the time I spent there with really awesome people. Any way, I went Sunday to check out the one in Boston. It was wonderful. People were friendly, the Spirit was moving, the sermon was great, and I have NEVER felt more at peace in a church before. It felt like home. Amazing. Before the service started, the pastor got up and talked a little bit about the prayer team there. He said they had been praying before the service and felt like they needed to pray for people with pain in the right side of their body and also had a vision. The pastor shared the vision: it was a picture of a garbage disposal full of, well, a lot of garbage. Then clean, pure water was being flushed through it. Simple picture. As soon as the vision was said, I thought of the friend who was with me but also felt a connection with it. I was just unsure of the reason why.

Now I know.

The rest of that night was great. Since we were already out we decided to head to UNO's Pizzeria in Harvard Square. I got a Shirley Temple and an eggplant, spinach, onion half pizza on whole wheat crust (7 points on Weight Watchers)=two of my favorite things. There was a guy sitting next to us who was about my age who was by himself with a big pile of books. My friend Alberta turned to him and asked if he went to Harvard. He said yes and that he was in the graduate program at the school of Divinity. He had a huge paper to write and decided to come out for a break. Turns out, he is a Christian. We talk with him for the rest of the night and at the end, I ask if I can pray with him. How awesome. God is so good.

I wanted to share that moment with you for two reasons: 1. Perfect example of how God works. He led us to Vineyard that night, led us to that restaurant, and set up a perfect situation where everyone involved would be blessed and uplifted that night. 2. It is the one good thing that has happened in a week of chaos and struggle.

Going back to the garbage disposal picture. The last week has been a rough one for many reasons. Mostly I feel as if people have sort of dumped their garbage on me in different ways. I'm sure we've all had this experience. It isn't very fun. It's been quite painful, and as probably been made worse by the fact that I am here in Quincy during the Christmas season, apart from the people that I love back home. There's been times of confusion, doubt, saddness, and many other emotions this past week.

Having said all of that, even though it's been a rough week, I have never felt the presence of God so strong in my life. I know that God is with me. Emmanuel=God is with us. I have felt that clean, pure water being poured in with all that garbage, and I know that pretty soon, that water will flush away everything. I know that everything that is happening right now is needed. God is teaching me what it means to trust Him, that He really is all I need, and that I sometimes need to just sit back and wait things out.

This week (or more) I am going to take time to be silent. Once I post the link to my blog, this means getting off Facebook for a while, getting off Twitter, turning off the movies, Gilmore Girls, The New Girl, music, closing my mouth unless I NEED to speak....silence. If I don't answer the phone or your text, don't be offended. Just pray for me, and I'll get back to you when I can. I think this week (or more) of silence will be cleansing. It will help me to better hear the Lord, so that when He speaks like he did that night in UNO's, I will hear and be obedient. In the midst of chaos and uncertainty, I am stepping back and being still. Waiting. Listening.