What the heck was “Awake My Lyre?”
We dubbed it as a “conference” because the teaching went hand-in-hand with the worship from each of the three speakers. Others inside my circle didn’t care for the term “conference” and preferred “festival,” but it wasn’t quite that either. The word “festival” has it’s own plethora of connotations. It wasn’t just a bunch of bands playing music for an audience.
I have decided (and Mary agrees) that Awake My Lyre is it’s own entity. It is neither conference nor festival and from now on will simply stand on its own accord. It is a place where you can go to learn, worship, and be ignited as a person in life and in the Lord.
I have to confess that I was blown away with what transpired over the weekend. I had no idea the combination of Chris Falson, Lenny Smith, and Glen Galloway would be as perfect a combination as it was for truly celebrating the diversity of worship that the Lord has placed within us. When I initially thought of the open-mic worship night, I thought it would either be really amazing or a complete flop. I was leaning towards “complete flop.” It was so incredible to hear the diverse sounds and flavors of everyone who participated and we all came together singing, dancing, and worshipping as one regardless of whether we cared for the individual style or not. It was so refreshing to be in such a non-judgmental zone to simply enjoy the presence of the Lord in the absolute NOW.
I keep hearing stories even now of how people were changed from just a short weekend. New songs are flowing forth from people insisting they don’t do that, people who used to worship on a regular basis but grew tired from the demands of life are now singing a new song once again, people are re-adjusted and inspired to live and create in a new way, people are freed and healed from past hurts of which they just couldn’t let go. I can’t wait to keep hearing the stories and I hope they continue on and on and on.
I am so inspired. As I looked around me at the incredibly diverse group of individuals and how they started to truly believe that who they are and how they were created was not only okay, but ON PURPOSE, the sense of freedom was overwhelming.
I am working on getting the video and audio available, but at this exact moment I know I need to rest and simply be. I confessed to Chris F. today, however, in an email that my mind keeps wandering and thinking of what could happen next with art, sculpture, sewing, poetry, wine and cheese social time, a song-writing workshop….the list goes on. And, boy, do I love Philadelphia!
I love hearing all the stories, so keep passing them on!!! I’m going to commit to finishing up my album and then….well, we’ll just have to see what happens next, won’t we?
Love,
Rachel
Here are a couple links you could read about the Awake weekend:
I Must Have Been Dreaming by Chris Falson
My Lyre is AWAKENED! by Lizzie Lou
