Imagine this:
It's the last day of Searchlight. We're being commissioned to go out and do great things. Simultaneously, we're all worshipping. It's prreeettyyyy cool.
Towards the end of the morning, one of my absolute favorite people stood in front of the group (maybe 150 people) and asked that we pray for her sister, who had walked away from the Lord. The mob surrounded her, and at Clint's urging, we shouted out the name of this sister three times, the fourth time yelling out Jesus.
Almost immediately, the majority of the group moved away from her and mobbed somewhere else and worshipped. I'm not talking about calmly singing, "Jesus loves me, this I know," but declaring with everything they had that Jesus was renewing us into beautiful things.
A few people weaved in and out around the circle, praying for this lost sister, but most stayed in the heart of worship.
At first glance, this looks terrible.
The church, the body of Christ, just abandoned this girl to the side and instead went to worship. Should they have been praying specifically for this sister, making sure that she was covered in requests?
Only one thing was needed.
I'm reminded of the famous story of Mary and Martha, with Martha desperately working to cook and clean, to prepare apace for Jesus, while Mary sat at His feet. When Martha pointed this out, Jesus calmly replied, "Only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her."
It's a works based society that values prayer requests over moments of praise and worship. These little things will continue to plague us every day, and every day we will have to choose if we will spend all our energies worrying about many things, or focusing on the One who makes all things new. It's so beautiful to see a community of people band together and choose what is good.
And it will not be taken from us.
