EMBRACING DISRUPTION

Last night was the first long exhale.
Last night, at 6pm, the 2012 prayer room kicked off.

It was a slow, challenging, but rewarding thing to see the space transform into something warm, inviting, sacred. Last night, as Becky and I oversaw the first open hours of the event (6-10pm), we began to put up some of the first visible prayers of the event. Finally, we were able to participate in what we had been working towards these past long weeks.

When the first prayer appointment arrived and I headed home, I couldn't stop thinking about the richness I had already experienced in the room, and one word placed itself at the forefront of my mind and would not budge: DISRUPTION.

This event has been a disruption in my life already, though it has just officially begun. The planning, organizing, setting up, has put areas of my life on pause: it has strained my hours of work, it has shortened my hours of rest, and it has added a measure of stress on my relationships. My husband and I have had to eat out instead of cook in, wash clothes only as they are needed, and steal small bits of time with each other between appointments at the space.

Sound difficult? It has been. But here's the thing: DISRUPTION is the point.
It is hard to put your routine on hold. It is hard to steal time from those you love. It is hard to work on less hours of sleep.
But the space that we create by throwing up a hand and bringing to a crashing halt our maddening pace forward is the goal. It is in this space that we can suddenly listen. It is a place to be still, contemplative, and in the divine pause, we can begin to hear again. Hear what our bodies, our minds, our soul, the divine, are all trying to tell us that we've only been giving half an ear.

We are all entering this week of our lives at different places on the spectrum. Perhaps you've developed a listening routine, and you already feel centered. Perhaps you feel so buried beneath the torrent of life obligations, you don't even know where to begin. Our challenge to you is to let prayer this week shape you, rather than trying to fit it into the shape of your life. Our challenge to you is to try something wild, radical, unexpected, and to simply show up and be open to what happens when you do.

We hope that this week, you will allow us to be a part of the pausing in your life.