Day Ten - 40 Days of Prayer - Warner Durnell

Steal Away to Sleep
It is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the break of anxious toil;
 for the Lord gives sleep to his beloved.  [Psalm 127:2]
 
Serving as a Minister Commissioner for the 214th General Assembly, held the summer of 2002 in Columbus, Ohio, was for me a most meaningful and memorable ministry experience.  I had served as a Racial Ethnic Advisory Delegate for the PCUS Assembly just prior to Reunion and a Committee Assistant at two PCUSA Assemblies post-Reunion, such that I was no novice to the rhythm and rigors of General Assembly the summer I served as a Minister Commissioner.  However, as a Commissioner I found the pace of General Assembly far more exhaustive than my earlier Assembly experiences.  Early rising, corporate worship, committee meetings, business sessions, breakfast, lunch and dinner programs, evening sessions, late night caucusing…it turned out to be in truth the mental, physical and spiritual workout that it had been billed as! 
 
On the last full day of plenary, in the late afternoon business session, a Committee Report on redefining marriage and family got bogged down earnest floor debate.  I had hit “a wall.”   Unable to concentrate on what sounded to me as a succession of repeated arguments for and against an amendment being crafted, I rose up from my seat in the Assembly Hall and made my way to the Chapel (a room set aside in the Convention Center for prayer and quiet reflection).
The Chapel was void of people.  I sat in a lotus position on the floor and silently began to offer prayers for personal strength and collective wisdom for Assembly commissioners.  Seated and still in that quiet place of solitude, I fell asleep.  I slept and slept until startled by the not so quiet entering of two others.  Wiping drool from the corner of my mouth, I quickly glanced at my watch, to discover to my horror that I had been sleeping for almost an hour.  Rising up and rushing back to my assigned seat in the Assembly Hall, I was surprised and dismayed that the floor debate was still on the same Committee Report item that I had walked out on an hour earlier!  Ugh!  But at least I had benefited from a good forty-five minute or so nap.  Better rested, I was able to remain engaged the remainder of what proved to be the longest day of the Assembly.
 
A word to the wide:  Get your full complement of rest before coming to the Assembly, jealously guard your nights for rest while at the Assembly, and if need be, dare to steal away to sleep during the Assembly if need be.  A rested body, mind and spirit is far more likely to discern what the Spirit is saying to the Church today than a weary one!
 
Warner R. Durnell
 Executive Presbyter
 North Alabama Presbytery