In Christian circles we have a joke that there are certain topics that have a tendency to “thin the herds.” If there is a sermon series on giving or a request to spend blocks of time in prayer, we tend to see fewer folks in the pews and in our halls of study. So when I cast the vision for a two-hour prayer retreat, in which we would ask God to speak to us, I would have been thrilled to have six to eight women–about 25% of our Women in the Word bible study class. God was apparently up to something special because 28 women committed with great enthusiasm and expectancy that God would show up!

     We gathered Saturday morning. My goal was for us to come with humbled hearts to hear God’s voice in the spirit of John 17:23. I prayed, “Lord, please bring our Women in the Word Sunday School class into complete unity with you. Please show us what you want us to focus on for 2013.” Whatever God shared with us was to be recorded on index cards.

     I picked key passages out of the gospel of John to raise confidence that God would talk to His children. I wanted the women to appreciate that God is honored to be invited as the solo speaker, and He will speak. Because our group was represented by all levels of spiritual maturity and because some women were newer in their journey with the Lord, I felt they needed encouragement to trust what they heard. When a particular thought popped into their mind, I didn’t want them to dismiss it just because they might not understand why that thought occurred. I came up with an object lesson to illustrate my point.

     I went to a children’s store and bought a jigsaw puzzle with about ten pieces. I took out all of the pieces and randomly distributed them without showing them the picture. Each piece was to represent a thought, a phrase, a Scripture passage, a word picture, or whatever came to their minds. I didn’t want the women to discount their thoughts just because they didn’t understand them. If everybody trusted that God was speaking, then we would write down on our index cards what He brings to mind. By doing so we would be able to see how God spoke to us collectively with all pieces brought to the table. Here is the assembled puzzle:

Assembled Airplane

     If you’re a teacher, I highly recommend that if you are going to illustrate a concept with a jigsaw puzzle, you should practice putting it together before trying it in front of a group. I made the assumption that because I bought the puzzle at a children’s store, it would be child’s play. I couldn’t have been more wrong! After fumbling for a while, I finally said, “OK. Who has the tail? Let’s start there!” After the laughter subsided, the women were gracious and loved the big picture concept. They understood that each piece of the puzzle is vital to understanding God’s emerging theme for our class.

     The time came to enter into solitude for two hours. I distributed index cards and instructed each woman to write whatever they believed God was telling them. I especially asked them not to use their names because we didn’t want human personalities to persuade interpretation. At the end of two hours we reconvened, collected all the cards, and debriefed. It was satisfying to hear women say that the two hours went by too fast!

     I scanned the cards and emailed them to all class members, whether they attended the retreat or not. I asked everyone to pray for the Spirit’s leadership in discerning the emerging theme and to be prepared to share their interpretations during our Sunday School hour. But when I read through all the index cards myself, all I could see were 28 random ideas. I had my heart set on a clear emerging theme that would be obvious to all. Where was the airplane?? I struggled Saturday afternoon and evening with disappointment, frustration, and confusion.

     I had no idea how intense my expectation of God was until I began our class in prayer, and I just wept. I confessed to God my disappointment and sought His help in discerning a unifying message. As soon as my prayer was over, the women told me they had just the opposite reaction! They were shocked I felt disappointed. “I had such great faith that God would pierce through all the different levels of spiritual maturity and bring about a crystal clear theme.” I said. “I have asked multiple prayer warriors who were covering us during our retreat to pray that God would make his message abundantly clear. It was my deepest desire that each woman would be so convinced in the power of prayer that they would implement times of silence before God as a regular discipline.”

     What followed was amazing. I asked each woman to share what she thought God had said to us collectively. One by one they shared from their hearts what they felt God had said. One woman said, “I felt like a fraud. I wanted to be a part of this retreat and knew I hadn’t been faithful to read the bible like I should. I thought, ‘Why would God even want to speak to me?’” But when she opened her bible, she kept hearing one theme – keep growing. Another woman shared, “Before I came to this class I felt spiritually dead. “I’m a nurse and care for many people,” she told us. “But I was dead inside. I feel alive again. “As I was praying, I heard “obey the Word.” Another woman who is a new believer said, “I’m so glad that I came. I went to the prayer retreat trusting that ‘something will happen.’ During the two hours I kept hearing “I am here.” She sensed that people want to do something and that we should pay attention to small details.”

     We stayed for as long as it took to hear all thirty ladies. There was not a dry eye in our room. There was transparency, vulnerability, and an indescribable love that was powerfully evident. The Spirit was moving mightily. As we listened to each woman, the tapestry of thoughts that God wove together revealed a unifying message. It became apparent that the airplane was there all along, and that I had missed it. As one of our ladies said, “I was hoping 28 cards would read World Hunger.” That was the kind of clarity I expected from God. But the collective message was clear: We are all one in Christ regardless of where we are in our spiritual journey, AND we are all hungering and desiring to grow in our relationship to God.

     Not only do we have a unifying message from God, but we have a stronger bond among us to journey together as we grow in our relationship to God by loving others and serving others. God spoke through index cards. There was an airplane after all.

Blessings,
Lee Ann

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