Monday, May 05, 2003
Fruit of the Spirit!
I was raised generally in the broad-church Episcopalian tradition. That tradition doesn't deny that people can do things like handle snakes, speak in tongues, prophecy, or move mountains through faith, but it's generally of the opinion that these sorts of things don't happen very often. I've seen some pretty otherwise-inexplicable things before, but I pretty much agreed that these things weren't very common.
Tonight, the Navigators (the campus Christian group to whom I belong) held a prayer and worship night for anyone who was interested. A large group (twenty-two!) of us had just eaten at El Guadelupe's (outstanding Mexican restaurant, for many reasons), and some of those of us who didn't have 7:45AM finals tomorrow got together to pray and sing. At dinner I'd met a guy named David, who lived in one of the apartments populated by Navigators but whom I'd never seen before. He was pretty quiet during the meal, but did mention to me afterwards as we were standing in line to pay that the American Indian art upon which Mexican art is based reminded him an awful lot of East Asian art. I looked, and agreed that there were some similarities. I'm interested in anthropology, and while I don't normally look at art very much, it was still interesting to see that someone else notices these things as well. In any case, once at the house, it ended up being myself, another Nav named Jeet (cool guy), and David sitting on one couch. We would sing a few songs, stop and pray a bit, and lather, rinse, repeat. I was impressed by some of the things David was asking, but just figured that perhaps he was feeling very spiritual that day. For all I know, the things for which I asked may have impressed people as well, depending on what sort of things normally impress them. After we'd done an awful lot of songs and were about ready to get ready to finish up, he suddenly looks at Laura, apologizes for not knowing her name, and starts prophesizing about her. His eyes seemed sort of glazed-over at this point, and he the turned to Aaron and said stuff about him as well. Finally, he turned and looked at Heather, apologized for not knowing her name, either, and kept prophesizing! The entire time, I didn't know what to think. I was in some state between wonder and being utterly freaked out. The closest to this I'd ever heard was my friend Kyle analyzing my strengths and weaknesses as he prepared me to be a leader within the Navigators for next year. While David lived with Aaron, he had only met Heather and Laura once or twice before (as I mentioned, he had to ask their names). About half the people in the room felt the same way as I did, and the other half seemed to have seen things like this before. I ended up parking near Ruth and Laura when I got back to my dorm, and so we walked together. Ruth had seen stuff like this before, and seemed happy but not very surprised. Laura, whom David had prophesied over, and I were both somewhat speechless.
While David was speaking, he would occasionally fall over words and stutter, so I prayed that his speach would be made clear. Oddly enough, as soon as I started, his speech got clearer. This happened with my friend Matt at my last Bible study, something similar happened when I was in Chester, and I've had it happen a few other times as well. I don't know if I have some special gift for praying or if it simply took someone asking God for a simple blessing for someone else, but I'm feeling a little odd. I don't know what to say, but I do need to think and pray about all this.
I was raised generally in the broad-church Episcopalian tradition. That tradition doesn't deny that people can do things like handle snakes, speak in tongues, prophecy, or move mountains through faith, but it's generally of the opinion that these sorts of things don't happen very often. I've seen some pretty otherwise-inexplicable things before, but I pretty much agreed that these things weren't very common.
Tonight, the Navigators (the campus Christian group to whom I belong) held a prayer and worship night for anyone who was interested. A large group (twenty-two!) of us had just eaten at El Guadelupe's (outstanding Mexican restaurant, for many reasons), and some of those of us who didn't have 7:45AM finals tomorrow got together to pray and sing. At dinner I'd met a guy named David, who lived in one of the apartments populated by Navigators but whom I'd never seen before. He was pretty quiet during the meal, but did mention to me afterwards as we were standing in line to pay that the American Indian art upon which Mexican art is based reminded him an awful lot of East Asian art. I looked, and agreed that there were some similarities. I'm interested in anthropology, and while I don't normally look at art very much, it was still interesting to see that someone else notices these things as well. In any case, once at the house, it ended up being myself, another Nav named Jeet (cool guy), and David sitting on one couch. We would sing a few songs, stop and pray a bit, and lather, rinse, repeat. I was impressed by some of the things David was asking, but just figured that perhaps he was feeling very spiritual that day. For all I know, the things for which I asked may have impressed people as well, depending on what sort of things normally impress them. After we'd done an awful lot of songs and were about ready to get ready to finish up, he suddenly looks at Laura, apologizes for not knowing her name, and starts prophesizing about her. His eyes seemed sort of glazed-over at this point, and he the turned to Aaron and said stuff about him as well. Finally, he turned and looked at Heather, apologized for not knowing her name, either, and kept prophesizing! The entire time, I didn't know what to think. I was in some state between wonder and being utterly freaked out. The closest to this I'd ever heard was my friend Kyle analyzing my strengths and weaknesses as he prepared me to be a leader within the Navigators for next year. While David lived with Aaron, he had only met Heather and Laura once or twice before (as I mentioned, he had to ask their names). About half the people in the room felt the same way as I did, and the other half seemed to have seen things like this before. I ended up parking near Ruth and Laura when I got back to my dorm, and so we walked together. Ruth had seen stuff like this before, and seemed happy but not very surprised. Laura, whom David had prophesied over, and I were both somewhat speechless.
While David was speaking, he would occasionally fall over words and stutter, so I prayed that his speach would be made clear. Oddly enough, as soon as I started, his speech got clearer. This happened with my friend Matt at my last Bible study, something similar happened when I was in Chester, and I've had it happen a few other times as well. I don't know if I have some special gift for praying or if it simply took someone asking God for a simple blessing for someone else, but I'm feeling a little odd. I don't know what to say, but I do need to think and pray about all this.
