U Can't Teech Sheep!

An Interlude About Intercession
Intercession: it's a very serious job but someone has to do it - right?
In the church setting you invariably, at some point, come across a person who is identified by the rest of the parishioners as an intercessor. "Look. See that lady over there? She's an intercessor - a REAL prayer warrior." We could almost see the spear and Viking helmet. Ohhh, no. We definitely did not feel like being one of those! If we wanted to be at war, we'd have joined the Army.
It shouldn't surprise you at this point to hear us say that intercession is pretty much totally misunderstood. Our human perception of this is to make a list of issues we feel very deeply about and then carve out hours of our week crying and whining to God about it. Some people even spend upward of five and six hours a day in deep prayer for their causes. I don't know about you, but the first thing that springs to mind when I hear this is, "How on earth do they get anything else done?" For that matter, are there enough hours in the day to actually cover all of the needs out there? Daunting task...very daunting indeed.
It happens to be that some of us feel happy with ourselves, like we've really accomplished something for God, by doing this. Does that mean intercession is a calling - for some and not for others? Is it a gift? That's what we thought for the longest time. But...no.
The amazing thing about God is that He absolutely loves to shatter our misperceptions. And boy, did He do that for us with this intercession thing! Of course, He did this by showing us first hand what intercession really is (Thanks a lot, God...you could've just told us). What follows is the true and unquestionably crazy account of our interlude with intercession.
Well, it started with just a fleeting thought....