Sillage
January 13, 2022Sillage Something Missing in the Numbers Over the past few months I have been thinking about the best way to report how God is moving in the prayer room. Being in ministry for a few years, I know the typical solution is to report statistics or, as we like to call it, “ministry numbers.” However, as I’ve been recounting all of the testimonies, I’ve honestly begun to feel a strange personal conviction. My heart has been a little grieved not by what the numbers show, but by what they do not show. Something was simply missing and it was troubling me. Sillage I brought this issue up at our last advisory board meeting and one of our members, David Ragland, mentioned a phenomenon known as “sillage” to illustrate a point. After researching it a little more I thought it was such a perfect word to describe what was missing from the numbers. Sillage is a French term used to describe the fragrance that lingers in the air when someone wearing perfume leaves the room. Immediately, my mind went to the story in John 12 (v. 1-7). Many of us know it. Jesus was attending a dinner with His disciples and some Pharisees when a woman named Mary of Bethany barged in, broke open a very expensive alabaster jar of perfume and poured it on Jesus in a powerful display of extravagant worship. John states that “the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” There it was! Sillage. There are two main takeaways this passage offers us for our house of prayer. I would summarize it like this– ...
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