One of the things I miss most being on the world race is being in church services (1) in English (2) that I’m not leading. I miss being pastored, being taught, and just getting to sit and listen. I forever have more respect for pastors and teachers after this experience; it’s just a whole other creature to continuously have something to bring, to teach, or to lead. Praise God for our leaders.
I miss being in environments that I could tune out to hear the deeper spiritual senses. I miss times of worship where I’m not sweating from my upper lip, whacking mosquitos from my feet, rushing to finish before the electricity automatically shuts off, or translating the entire service.
Good representation: Tent in left because we were sleeping in the church. One brother has his headphones in during worship. Another person has their face covered by a towel to stop mosquitoes. Chilean missionary holding crying daughter in her lap. Ralph leading worship & our contact joining in playing with a guitar tuned differently. Yep.
At the same time, I listen to recordings of some worship back from the states, and they seem to be without a lot of grit. Not all of them, certainly, but there is just simply a reality that it’s much easier to say the worshipy words than it is to live the worshipy words. We want to sing how “we trust you God” or “you are good all the time” or “I give my all”. It’s much easier to sing those things with nice harmonies and air conditioning and a fresh cup of coffee in our hands than it is to willingly suffer loss, inconvenience, or pain for the sake of love. It’s easy to believe that the spiritual stuff comes when we can tune out our physical demands, realities, and situations and just sing from our spirits. That’s not all bad, but it’s not all true, either.
I’ve liked Romans 12:1 for a while: “I exhort you, therefore, brothers, in view of God’s mercies, to offer yourselves as a sacrifice, living and set apart for God. This will please him; it is your spiritual act of worship”.
I like the idea of living worship. Truthfully, though, many times on this journey, I would have preferred to sing the words beautifully than to live them out painfully. Ha! Isn’t that all of us?
It’s funny that I never connected the rest of chapter 12 intimately to this opening line. In the rest of the chapter, the apostle Paul gives very specific directions on how to use gifts, positions, and mindsets to serve the Lord and others. He commands us how to “spiritually” worship by giving us specific, physical ideas. Love others in this way…
If you counsel people, do it to comfort and to exhort
If you speak words from God, don’t speak things bigger than you trust
If you have something to give, give it generously & matter-of-factly
Be so sensitive to others that you can cry with them or shout joyfully with them
Don’t be lazy when it comes time to do work
If you are a leader, lead diligently and with zeal
If you give people mercy, don’t do it bitterly…give mercy cheerfully
Don’t consider yourself more important than everybody else around you
Give abundantly to people who don’t like you or who make you uncomfortable
Let your love be real…not just a show
How did I not get that before!?
I am really looking forward to long worship sets where I do not have to bring so much to the table or to fight so hard to keep my attention on God. At the same time, though, not having that form of worship—the singing in a comfortable room— has allowed me (and forced me) to gain a truer understanding of worship that pleases God.
My spirit deeply longs to live in a way that honors and pleases God; I don’t want to live a show. I don’t want to be able to sing beautiful harmonies of words that I don’t live.
May I live the things I sing and sing the things I live. Change my mind, Jesus, to think like yours.
