amen.
here's a new thing: i love my church. i love that saturday night means sunday morning is coming soon. i love that i get excited about being with other believers. i love that my whole self comes ready to learn, that my heart shows up soft.
this has all been a long time coming.
jon, a pastor at the church, spoke this morning about worship. why we do it, what it looks like, where our hearts are at. he spoke about churches he goes to where people are jumping up and down, dancing, raising their hands and he spoke about our church - the polar opposite. acknowledging that neither is better than the other, he said he was looking for a place in the middle. i know jon and i are probably on the same page, and my objection to his statement is probably just all in the semantics, but i think i want the freedom of jumping, of dancing, of raising my hands, of sitting when i want, of quiet, of loudness, and that i don't want to find a happy medium. i think freedom is what we both want. and freedom doesn't come from searching for a middle ground. i think freedom comes when you give yourself completely over to god, when you are unashamedly his, when you are fully engaged in seeking god.
lots more to say about it, but probably not blogging material. besides, my heart is ready for some out-loud worship, gospel-syle. after incredible conversations yesterday with my roommate kat and friends allison and allie about the global community, international accountability, etc., my heart rested on micah 6:8 before i fell asleep last night: "and what does the lord require of you? to act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with your god." and to think on those things that god loves - peace-making, people-loving, caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, you name it, man, it just makes you love god even more. you can't help but be overcome with what an amazing god he is.
alleluia. you can hear the countless echoed amens.
posted by Mary @ 10:19 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday."
-Isaiah 58: 6-10
amen, amen, amen.
Mmmm. Mary I agree with you with the wholest heart about worship like you wrote about. I said to my friend Daniel yesterday, "I need a church that gives me rich, full language, like that of the Catholic church or Episcopalian church, but a church that tells me the stories in the bible like they are real, like my own life could brush up against the people in there and we would know each other, and then I want the worship of this church to be like the freedom sung when a black choir sings. I have always said that I want to live life like a black choir sings...deep passionate valley's, highest mountain-ed praise, acting, singing like you are living, singing something like you mean it, feel it, know it. All of the above. To live and worship knowing full-well that your identity is Christ, period. And going all out in this very serious, death-defying way. So here's to that, Mary.
ericka, i hear you. amen to you. i used to hope that if i ever got married, i'd want a huge black gospel choir to come out and sing, "did you feel the mountains tremble?" i know it's not quite marriage material but it's a thrilling song. and i always thought "thrilling" should be part of any marriage ceremony.
mmm, thanks for letting me have that thought this morning. i feel alive :)
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