So, well, tonight there was chapel, it began with musical worship... I think it was 3 songs... I remember thinking as soon as they started - because of the song they were playing- how excited I was because it was a song that would have been played at Green Pastures. About the first couple lines in, however, all that excitement dropped because I realized that the community is entirely different. I love Huntington's community, I have grown a lot over my last four years here, because of the professors, fellow students, and other things that are present here at the university. I've found, though, that I've got nothing here compared to the community I witnessed and experienced in Northern Ireland. I understand that a lot of my feelings are based from my current re-adjusting to my 'home' culture... it's understandably hard after growing and learning so much in this other culture...
What has shocked me is that I still love where I am... I just wish I could pull from some of the things that Green Pastures expressed and get the people here to see and learn from them too! We lack the joy and excitement in our worship time. It's so sad... we were singing "Break Free" the words involved DANCE and FREE... yet nearly everyone was still... and of course I thought back to GP... where we would be jumping and dancing and clapping and shouting... not just because the music was awesome... but because our GOD is AWESOME-- more awesome than anything else in our minds. Yet... when we here come to worship this AWESOME God... we stand still and sing. We close our eyes sometimes, sometimes think about the words... but we don't show it. I understand that not everyone is comfortable.. some people 'just worship this way'... i get it, I can be that way.... but in a song that clearly exhibits the joy involved with being saved by GOD.... no joy being shown from us.... it's just sad. However, I understand some reasons why the passion and the joy is stronger at GP. The main reason is that generally... people who are attending Huntington University were saved at a young age, or if not... they generally would agree that they haven't lived the "worst" of lives. We have a hard time recognizing that we too are sinners, just as bad as those who commit murder or some other big awful crime. The members of Green Pastures have typically lived lives surrounded and filled with really tough circumstances that have helped them to see how awesome our God is for saving them. Also the members see that every sin committed is still a terrible sin in the eyes of God and they live accordingly... that even if I only ever committed one simple sin... I'd still go to Hell without Jesus to save me!! We don't live that way here... we know God saved us.. but do we know HOW much we NEEDED the saving? NO. It's a major failure on the part of Judeo-Christians... and it's something that I hope to be a part of the change - I just don't know how. But... those are my thoughts for the night-- I need to go write a paper.
Live for HIS glory.
2 comments:
awesome post. we miss you so much too. but god puts you in different places for reasons and seasons. i really hope you get another season at gp though!
I think that is an area our worship in the church needs renewal... like your saying, our worship (in every sense of the word) should be characterized by joy. I realize that joy is expressed in many different ways, but the physical expression of our joy often lacks in the church (at least here in the midwest). It's interesting how you go to a football game and every part of our being is engaged... jumping, cheering, yelling, etc. and then in our times of meeting with God we turn very inward and private. It's very convicting for myself. I'm not saying our worship right now is not meaningful, but why aren't we engaging our whole self? It's a valid question I think...
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