Job 21:2 “Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you give me."
We took our staff leadership team away for a couple of days of rest and relational fun (with spouses and fiancees). More fun than I thought it would be was cooking meals together (the 'throw everything on it at the end' pizza went untouched on 'make your own pizza night'; my potato-chip topped pizza, on the other hand, was a stunning achievement of imagination and artistry). As fun as I hoped it would be was: we sat by a fireplace in the mountains, had long conversations, joked around, and played together (ping pong, wiffle ball, pool, shuffleboard, golf, hot tub - we were in the adult guest lodge of Young Life's Windy Gap near Asheville). In case you haven't met my wife Angie, here we are after a hike yesterday morning.
Although I led a brief devotional moment each morning, that was not our primary agenda. The true 'work' of our play together was to give the gift of deep listening and thorough prayer for one another.
During or after a meal, we'd pick one of the six couples and say 'talk to us all about your lives - what happened of significance this fall? What are you facing? How can we pray for you?' Then we just let them talk. For a long time. ESPECIALLY past the point at which you know, in polite or even friendship conversation, 'okay that's enough, they are tired of hearing about ME now.' When one person told thankfully about their child being assigned just the right teacher for him, she said 'but you don't need to know the details of how God worked out for just that right teacher for my boy.' To that we said 'yes we do, we really want to know, please keep talking.' Everyone was allowed to ask questions. The only off-limits topic was the work life of each spouse on staff at the church. It took a long time.
Then we'd simply pray for the couple. For a long time, with a couple of folks standing behind them placing representative hands of God's blessing and favor on their shoulders. I mean a long time (I'm not saying I got bored, just that it was more thorough prayer than I've been part of for a while).
As I listened to these couples speaking the ups and downs, in and outs of their lives, and as I listened to them pour out their hearts for one another to God in prayer, my life was knit to them in a new way. What profoundly godly, Christ-centered people I work with. What integrity they have as people following Jesus and serving and leading others. I return with a fresh appreciation for the magnificent works of art they are on the clay wheel of the good Potter who made them and shapes them still in the Spirit.
So the gifts we all gave to one another, and received in return, were the gifts of being deeply listened to and thoroughly prayed for. Who in your life needs this gift? If you pay attention, you'll realize that not many people stop to ask real questions of one another's lives, not many stop to listen to you deeply, and rarely are you prayed for thoroughly. Perhaps this is a gift your community group could slowly give to one another, one person or couple at a time. Or simply friend to friend over coffee.
Job 21:2 “Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you give me."
