Megan's prayer: Falling Up's "Ambience"

About three months ago, I wrote about the joy that I find in going to bed early, wrapping myself with blankets, and just being in God's presence. What I never shared was what happened after I posted my blog that night. I snuggled into bed, very close to falling asleep, when I was overwhelmed with the feeling that God loved me. It was so calming, so peaceful. I think about that night often.

Today's song reminded me:

Listen deep, you'll hear the sound
Whispering, it's all around

Chris' prayer: Falling Up's "Ambience"

Listen deep, You'll hear that sound
Whispering, it's all around

I just started reading Michael Yaconelli's Dangerous Wonder in hopes of using it in a small group this summer. In the first chapter, Yaconelli talks about the voice of God speaking to us, but not in loud, thunderous tones as we read about in the Bible, but rather in whispers. God is always speaking to us, Yaconelli continues, but at some point, our lives get too filled with *stuff* to hear the whispers. Too much homework to do, too many meetings to go to, too many commitments to fulfill.

This line from Ambience reminded me of that for obvious reasons. His voice is everywhere. It's all around. I just have to take the time, and retrain my ears, to listen.


YouTube | iTunes | Lyrics

Katie's prayer: Falling Up's "Ambience"

Last year was a very trying time in my faith. I felt alone often, in both my life and my spiritual life. I think the problem stemmed from how my roommate and others on my floor treated me. For reasons unknown, they delighted in talking about me behind my back, ignoring me when I was around, messing with my stuff and so on. I prayed for the year to end and end quickly. I prayed that they would change, they would realize how horrible they were being, and they would stop. My big summer project was learning to forgive those girls for everything they had done to me. The main reason behind my urgency in forgiving them was because I believed one of them, my roommate, would die from brain cancer over the summer.

Away from these girls, it was easier to get back into my faith life, and with that extra boost of faith, I was able to forgive them. The hurt they caused returned when I got back to school and found out my roommate was a pathological liar. Among many other lies, the biggest - she never had brain cancer. It has been very hard for me to move on past this. The anger and resentment I felt towards them, particularly my roommate, resurfaced. In my mind, I took back my forgiveness. And in all honesty, I still hold on to some of that. But I feel, as I have for a while that I "MUST move on."

It's finally time to completely forgive them for everything, all the hurt and loneliness they made me to feel and for all the lies that were told. Holding onto a grudge is only going to hurt me and definitely not what God wants for me.

Jen's prayer: Falling Up's "Ambience"

The first thing I noticed about this song was the title: Ambience. First of all, I spell it ambiance and got confused by its spelling, so I had to look up the definition to see if there's a difference. There isn't. The definition caught my eye, though: "ambience is a particular environment or surrounding influence." In college I had a surrounding influence that was not positive and it dragged me down. I allowed the surrounding people to influence me and make me believe I would be happier if I was more like the world. I have never abandoned my faith as much as I did my senior year of college. I found that the more I withdrew from God, the worse things got for me. It was a learning experience and I've grown from it, but this song reminds me of what it was like then. Especially this part:

So I stand, all alone
With no chance, on my own
Will I just sustain, moving on in vain?
Cause this glow, you and I
Have come to know, is a lie
And we must move on

Being raised a Christian and then falling away from Christ is one of the scariest things I've experienced. I was alone with "no chance on my own." The question was, was I going to be too vain and prideful to admit to Jesus that I messed up and needed Him? I'm a very prideful person and hate to admit mistakes and somehow admitting to Jesus that I had severely screwed up and could not do things alone was one of the most difficult things ever. However, just like this song says, "we must move on." I had to move on, out of that ambience at school and back into Jesus' arms. I am so thankful for Jesus' intricate love that accepted me again and loves me even more than I can imagine.

Catie's prayer: Falling Up's "Ambience"

This love is so intricate I feel it taking

God's love. It's something I write about on here a lot I think. But if we all realized how much God loved each of us, the world would be such a different place. The intricate, gentle, powerful love our Lord has for each of us is so incredibly wonderful. To have someone know our inmost being and still love us all the more. It's beautiful. The love of God will take us to new heights, things we couldn't even dream of, if we let it.