Megan's prayer: By the Tree's "Invade my Soul"

It's time for me to speak aloud.

I was at dinner tonight with some friends. They were all discussing a friend that they knew who was recently engaged. Although I didn't know the friend, I tried to follow the conversation anyways. At one point, they all stated that they didn't like the fiance. As one of my friends put it, "He is conservative. And too Catholic." Wow.

Now, I realize these friends aren't practicing Catholics, but they were all raised Catholic. And they know that I still have a very strong faith. It seemed like a bit of a harsh comment.

In order to redeem their comment, and try to make them seem like they didn't hate all Catholics, I was told "Oh, he's an extreme Catholic.. not like you Megan. He's always trying to tell people what they should believe."

I guess for a minute this made me feel better. I'm not one to get in people's business and tell them exactly how they should live their life.... But then I got home, and listened to this song.

It's time for me to speak aloud.

I feel, now, like I should have stood up for this guy more. I should have stood up for my faith more, for myself. It's something I feel strongly about, and if these people who say they are my friends truly are my friends, they will accept me - "extreme Catholic" and all.

I pray that next time I have the courage to speak aloud.

Chris' prayer: By The Tree's "Invade My Soul"

I was just talking this evening with my small group about how I'm afraid to give up control, and that, when I don't have any control over a situation, it makes me nervous and anxious. And so here is this song tonight, proclaiming "Lord, take control." And that is such a prayer that I wish I could pray and every point in my life, and especially now. There are things that I just wish that I could get rid of, but for some reason always feel the need to hold onto.

So, like my church's music minister always says, "If you don't want to be with God right now, then maybe pray about how you want to want to be with Him." My prayer for tonight is this:

Lord, while I can't give up control of everything right now, I pray that you will take from me the desire to control everything. Open my mind just that little bit.

iTunes | Lyrics

Jen's prayer: By the Tree's "Invade my soul"

Give Him your burdens, cast your cares
He died for you, He'll always be there

I'm realizing I have a lot of burdens and cares that are not of the Lord's. As I was talking to my mom tonight I realized I have these confidence issues that are definitely not from the Lord. I need to release this to God and let Him invade my soul and help me start fresh and anew. Praise the Lord He is always there for me.

Katie's prayer: By the Tree's "Invade my Soul"

So the one thing I noticed about this song was how it so easily changed sounds. It starts off slow, speeds up, gets louder, and there's a random quiet really slow no drum very little guitar almost total a cappella part. As I noticed this, I realized that my faith life is kinda like that, at times more vibrant, more noticeable, and at other times - like that random quiet bit - my faith life almost disappears.

Recently, I hit that quiet bit. Maybe 1.5-2 weeks ago I stopped feeling God around me. I don't know why it stopped, but it did. I still prayed, and still did everything; hoping that feeling would come back. It didn't. It still hasn't. Last Thursday or Friday though, I almost totally gave up. I began to think: without that feeling that God's there, why bother praying? Why bother trying? It won't matter, I won't feel Him. I didn't want to blog on Thursday, I didn't blog at all on Friday, mainly cause I had no time to, but also because I didn't want to. Today was the first day since last Wednesday that I did morning prayer. In the past week, I've done night prayer maybe once or twice.

But today is a new day. And today is where that quiet part suddenly becomes the loud part again. Because today, I made up my mind to continue with the praying. Continue even though I don't feel God, continue even when I don't want to or feel pressure not to. That feeling of 'God is with me' is not important. The fact that I feel it or not feel it does not change the fact that God is there.

I'm coming back, coming back to You!