Praying the Room

Recently I was given a great piece of spiritual advice. I was worried about an upcoming meeting at work and I was agonizing over what I needed to say, what others might say and how it would all go. I knew I wanted God to work through me and I was using the prayer that I use whenever I chair an AA meeting: “Please let me carry your message and not my ego.”

I mentioned this to a friend and she made this suggestion:

“Before the meeting go into the room where the meeting will be held and pray the room…Pray in the actual room so that you have invited God into the space where you’ll most need his guidance.”

It was amazing. I went down the hall to the empty conference room and sat for a few minutes. I prayed and invited God to be in that room with all of us and yes, to keep my ego out of it. Twenty minutes later I returned to the room for the meeting. It went well.  I said what I needed to say, not perfectly but I remembered it was no longer about me. And so I was fine.

I can’t wait to use this again for staff meetings and Board meetings and committee meetings any place where I tend to tip toward fear or ego.